Of Gods and Ghosts
by randomSWEDISHperson
Summary: Deep within the Ghostzone lie the forgotten lands of the ancient gods of the north. For many years, they have been content with their isolation, not interfering with the rest of the world. However, when one of these gods takes his children to find a new home, more than one world will change. Heavily influenced by Norse Mythology.
1. Prologue and Chapter 1

_**A/N: This is my first ever Danny Phantom fanfic, and also the first fanfic I've written in over two years. I'm also not writing in my native language, and I'm writing about characters in a country I've never been to. If characterization is a bit off, or the storytelling seems a bit dull, keep that in mind. Also, tell me so that I can improve.**_

 _ **Also, before we start, I'd like to clarify some things about this fic. First off, unlike 99% of Danny Phantom fanfics, this fic DOES NOT ignore Phantom Planet - it takes place an undetermined but not too long amount of time after it. Second, because of this, Danny doesn't exactly have a secret identity anymore - everyone knows who he is. Third, while they don't bully him anymore because they've just realized how dangerous that actually is, the 'popular kids' in school still don't accept Danny and co. as among them. They've been boosted in the social hierarchy from 'bullying victims' to 'neither popular nor unpopular'.**_

 _ **Oh, and also, while this story contains heavy references to Norse mythology - heck, the main villain is LOKI, and a lot of other characters from those myths also make an appearance, this is in no way a crossover with Marvel's version of Thor or any other adaptation of the myths, instead it's just me using the knowledge I have of the original myths and trying to fit them into the DP universe.**_

* * *

 **Prologue**

 _General POV_

"Oh Allfather, it is a disaster!"

The Allfather, an old man with only one eye, looked up. The voice had come from a young soldier who had burst into his throne room unannounced. He hadn't even bothered to close the door behind him, and the Allfather could glimpse a battle taking place right outside it.

"What has happened?" he asked.

"It's Loki. He took his children and left. Even Sleipner is gone!" said the soldier.

The Allfather sighed and leaned his head on his left hand.

"Go get my son."

 **Chapter 1**

 _General POV_

The sun was shining in Amity Park. There was nothing unusual about that; the sun often shines all over the world. There's probably no place on Earth where the sun doesn't shine at least occasionally.

What was unusual, however, was the flying shoe boxes blocking it from view. They were zapping around above the streets at high speeds and occasionally hitting the fleeing civilians. In the midst of them floated a blue-tinted man in a construction worker's outfit.

"Beware!" shouted the man while waving his arms, "I am the Box Ghost, and with these Shoe Boxes I shall take over the world!"

Meanwhile, a trio of teenagers were standing on the sidewalk and looking at him.

"This guy again?" asked one of them, a girl with hair as dark as her clothes and thick eyeliner.

"You'd think he'd have learned by now," answered another, this one a dark-skinned boy with glasses and a red beret. In his left hand he was clutching an advanced electronic device.

The third, a dark-haired boy with bright blue eyes, sighed. "I'll take care of him," he said and looked around for a hiding place, before remembering he didn't need one anymore. Ever since he'd saved the world from that huge green asteroid, everyone already knew who he was. "I'm going ghost!"

A circle of light formed around the boy's waist, and split like a curtain to reveal his alternate self. Dark hair turned white, blue eyes turned green and his relatively normal clothes exchanged for a black and white jumpsuit.

As soon as his transformation was complete, the surrounding civilians started cheering. "It's the Phantom!" they said, "He'll save us!"

Danny Phantom, for that was the ghost-boy's name, smirked. "Hey ugly!" he called as he leapt off the ground. The blue man – The Box Ghost – turned around in surprise.

"Beware!" shouted the ghost, once again waving his arms. The shoe boxes, which had previously flown around randomly, organized themselves and flew toward Danny.

The attack was meaningless, as the boy simply turned himself intangible and let the boxes fly straight through him. "That all you got?" he asked, before firing a ray of green energy from his palm straight into the ghost.

The Box Ghost cried out in alarm. "I surrender! I surrender!" he yelled and continued wailing his arms.

Down on the ground, the dark-haired girl had produced what appeared to be a technologically advanced thermos, and pointed it at the ghost. "See you later!" she shouted, and pressed a button on the thermos. A silver vortex surrounded the Box Ghost and sucked him into the thermos.

"Good job, Sam" said Danny as he landed. The girl, Sam, merely laughed it off.

"It was just the Box Ghost," she said, "Nothing to phone home about"

"Great job guys!" shouted the boy in glasses, Tucker, whilst running toward them.

Danny was about to repeat what Sam had said to him, when a terrifying roar came from behind the group. He quickly turned around and put himself in front of his friends.

In front of him was a ghost unlike any he'd ever seen before. It was a huge wolf, but unlike the blue or green coloration of most ghostly animals its fur was a dark grey. Its eyes were red as blood, and a thin, almost see-through rope was tied around its neck. From its mouth ran a thick stream of clear drool. The only thing identifying it as a ghost and not some freak of nature was the green glow emanating from its skin.

"What is that?" questioned Sam. "I've never seen anything like it"

"I don't know, but it's not getting past me!" yelled Danny as he once again took to the skies. The wolf growled and barked at him.

Danny fired a ghost ray at the wolf, but it dodged it and leapt onto the ghost boy. Danny yelped in surprise, but quickly recovered by firing a close-range ray straight into the wolf's face. The wolf howled in pain and turned around to run away.

"Not so fast!" yelled Danny and flew after it. He closed his eyes and concentrated, and when he opened him the green glow had been replaced by an icy blue. He fired and equally cold-looking ray at the ground in front of the wolf, and a wall of ice grew out of the ground to surround it. The wolf growled and turned around, only to be hit by another green ray to the face. However, unlike the first hit, this only served to make the wolf angry. It barked loudly and then proceeded to run up the wall of ice, after which it jumped off towards Danny, who quickly dodged.

This, however, meant the wolf was now standing right in front of Sam and Tucker, who stepped back in surprise.

"Danny!" yelled Sam, and the mentioned half-ghost turned around. When he saw what was going on, he quickly flew toward his friends, and reached them just in time to fly them out of harm's way. He then flew back to the wolf and hit it in the face with another close-range ray. The wolf once again howled and tried to run away, but Danny caught the end of the rope hanging from its neck. At once, the wolf stopped struggling and seemed to accept defeat.

"Sam, get it with the thermos!" yelled Danny to his friends.

"I'm on it!" answered Sam and captured the wolf-like ghost.

Once the danger was over, Danny sank to the ground and turned back into his human form. Sam and Tucker ran over to him, and Tucker reached him just in time to catch the boy as he collapsed from exhaustion. When they realized the battle was over, curious citizens started emerging from their hiding places, but Sam and Tucker paid them no mind as they carried their unconscious friend home.

In the distance, a raven could be seen taking flight.

* * *

"Fenrir has been defeated, father"

The voice was that of a young female. Her face and body was covered by a black hooded cape, but you could see strands of hair peeking out from beneath the hood – some white, some black.

She was speaking to a very tall man, who was wearing a cloak similar to hers in all but color – while her cloak was plain and black, his was dark green with a golden trim and matching embroidery covering it.

"It seems the people of Midgard are stronger than expected," said the man. His voice was deep, and it reminded the young woman of the rumble of an earthquake. "I want you to look into this. Take this amulet of shapeshifting, and blend in among the humans."

"Yes, father," said the woman and looked up, revealing her face – half that of a beautiful human woman, with dark hair, fair skin and a deep blue eye, and the other half a pale blue, with white hair and a glowing green eye.

* * *

 _ **A/N: So yeah, there you go. First chapter. Hope you liked it, and stay tuned for more.**_

 _ **Oh, and, one more thing I forgot to mention earlier, the Asgardians/Norse gods/whatever you want to call them have different names for things in the DP universe. I'll keep a list of words here and update it as the story goes along, so you don't get confused.**_

Asgardian words:  
Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The ghostzone  
Asgard - The part of the ghostzone where the Asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa (this one is just there because I think halfa is such a stupid-sounding word ugh)


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: Whooo! Chapter two! I'm giving you this earlier than planned because I can't wait to see your reactions.**_

 _ **So, I guess I should mention, there will be OC's in this work. You have been warned.**_

 _ **Edit: I added a quite vital detail to the introduction of Helen's character. She's wearing a green pendant. It will become very important later one in the story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

 _Danny's POV_

"I don't know, Danny, something felt off about that wolf," said Sam. She, Danny and Tucker were walking through the corridors of Casper High, on their way to their first lesson of the day.

"Yeah! Like, it looked all weird!" said Tucker, "Not to mention, why did it just give up like that? It could have easily thrown you around, but as soon as you grabbed that rope it just quit!"

Although he didn't say it out loud, Danny agreed with them. There _was_ something off about that ghost. But hey, it was gone now, and hopefully it wouldn't be showing its face again any time soon.

"I'm sure it's completely normal," he lied and tried desperately to believe his own words.

* * *

 _Sam's POV_

"Well, class, today is a special day," said Mr. Lancer, "Because we are getting a new student. Isn't that... _cool_ , as you kids say?"

Normally, things that excited Mr. Lancer were boring to everyone in the class, but Sam had to admit that a new classmate could be nice… or a complete nightmare, depending on what they were like. Curiously, he looked up at the door.

"You can come in now, Miss Andersson!" said Mr. Lancer, and the door opened to reveal a tall, blonde and blue-eyed girl. Around her neck hung an expensive-looking green pendant. She was quite beautiful, which probably meant she was going to end up in the popular crowd. Great.

The girl walked up to the front of the class. She whispered something to Mr. Lancer, who nodded. She then turned to the class.

"Hi!" she said, "My name is Helena Andersson, but most people call me Helen. My family just moved here from Norway, so I don't really know anything about this place. I like dancing and ice-skating, and my favourite food is apple pie! I hope I can be friends with all of you!"

Her voice was annoyingly cheery, and whilst she claimed to be Norwegian she didn't have much of an accent. On top of that, something about her felt fake, like she was pretending to be someone she wasn't. But then again, that wasn't very uncommon for teenage girls, so Sam didn't pay much attention to it.

* * *

"I don't like her," said Sam as she sat down in the cafeteria. Danny and Tucker were already there, and almost half-way through their meals.

"I don't know what you´re talking about," said Tucker and took a big bite out of his lunch, "She seems nice to me. And she's pretty cute too"

"Plus, you don't really know her, do you? She could be really nice!" said Danny.

Sam was about to protest, when a cheery voice interrupted from behind her.

"Hi guys! Can I sit with you?" asked the new girl – Helen? – with a smile.

"Sure!" said Tucker, before Sam could say anything. Sam sighed as Helen sat down next to her.

"So, Helen, what do you think about a man who knows his tech?" asked Tucker and leaned towards Helen, who was sitting opposite him.

Helen _giggled_. Girls who giggled like that usually were bad luck. Sam frowned and crossed her arms. She made a point of not looking at the girl. Helen didn't seem to notice.

"If you're trying to flirt with me, you're sort of barking up the wrong tree," she said to Tucker and smiled. She then glanced at Sam. "You, however…"

It took Sam and the others a couple seconds to process what Helen had said.

"Whoa there… No. I'm not interested. And besides, I'm taken. No thank you," said Sam. Helen merely shrugged.

"Too bad," she said, "Still. There's loads of other cute girls in this town anyway."

 _Cute?_ This girl thought Sam was _cute?_ Cool, hot, maybe even beautiful but nobody, not even Danny, got to say she was _cute_. When said to Sam Manson, _cute_ was practically an insult.

"So, uh, changing the subject here, but why are you sitting with us?" asked Danny, "I mean, we're hardly the most popular kids here, and you're definitely popular girl material"

Helen shrugged. "Any other new kid would probably go straight for the popular guys. I thought someone should give you guys a shot too. After all, popularity is rarely a good way to measure someone's personality "

Huh. Maybe this girl wasn't so bad after all. She still seemed a bit too happy and bright, and there still was the _cute_ thing, but she seemed to have some depth to her personality after all.

Still, 'not so bad after all' doesn't mean she's not bad. She just could be worse.

* * *

Helen continued to follow Sam and her friends around for the rest of the day. Danny and Tucker seemed to make friends with her rather quickly, but Sam still didn't trust her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by yet another one of the blonde's questions.

"So, uh, Danny? I don't mean to be nosy or anything, but are you _that_ Danny?" she asked.

"Huh?" asked Danny, "What do you mean 'that Danny'"?

"You know, the one in the papers. The half-ghost guy who saved the world? I read he should live in this town?"

Oh right. People knew about that now.

"Oh. Yeah, that's me" answered Danny, like it was no big deal. Like that hadn't been his deepest secret just a couple months ago.

"Huh. Cool," said Helen.

* * *

 _Cloaked woman's POV_

"Father, I bring news," said the cloaked young woman, "Amity Park, and by extension the human world, seems to have gained a new hero"

"Is that so," said the man in the green cloak and turned to face her, "Tell me more."

"He goes by two names. Most know him as 'Danny Phantom', but according to the humans' legal systems his name appears to be 'Daniel Fenton'."

"That's interesting. Is there a reason for this duality?"

The girl swallowed.

"It seems… It seems as though he is a Halfling"

The man's cloak hid his face, but the woman knew him enough to know his eyes had surely widened in surprise.

"Well then. I guess this isn't just going to be a walk in the park after all."

* * *

 _ **A/N: Don't like Helen? Good, you're not supposed to. Not yet, at least**_

Asgardian words:  
Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The ghostzone  
Asgard - The part of the ghostzone where the Asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: Bit more mythology in this chapter.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

 _Sam's POV_

"Hey guys, I think I know what that weird ghost was," said Sam, looking up from a thick book. Danny, Tucker and Helen hurried over to look. The four teenagers were at Sam's place, studying for a report they were supposed to do on Norse mythology. The only reason Sam had allowed Helen to come with them was that being Norwegian she did have a bit of extra knowledge on the subject. That, and for some reason Danny and Tucker seemed to like her.

"In Norse Mythology, Fenrir is a monstrous wolf," read Helen aloud, "He is the son on Loki, and it is foretold that he shall be the one to kill Odin in the battle of Ragnarok. To prevent this, the gods attempted to bind him with all kinds of thick chains, but none of them were strong enough. Eventually, the gods turned to the dwarves for help. The dwarves proceeded to make a thin, silky rope. The gods laughed at the dwarves, and said that such a tiny rope could never bind Fenrir. But then, the dwarves said: 'This is no rope. This is Gleipnir, made from the sound of a cat's footfall, the beard of a woman, the roots of a mountain, the sinews of a bear, the breath of a fish, and the spittle of a bird. Never will you find a stronger chain to bind your wolf with.'"

"A monstrous wolf, bound with a thin rope? Yeah, that does sound like our guy," said Tucker. Sam and Danny nodded in agreement.

"But why would a wolf from Norse Mythology show up in Amity Park?" asked Danny.

"I don't know," said Sam, "But I have a feeling this isn't over."

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

The next day, during the middle of the school day, Danny's ghost sense went off. "I need to go!" he said, and ran out of the classroom. Another good thing about his secret being out was that he didn't have to come up with excuses to leave all the time. He still didn't like changing in front of people though, so he briefly hid behind a row of lockers – not that there were much people in the hallways anyway, everyone was in class – and changed into his more ghostly form.

He invisibly phased through the school's roof, and looked around. The ghost he was looking for was not hard to find. Towering over the city was a _huge_ dark green serpent, with its mouth open wide and deadly sharp fangs visible. A bright green fluid could be seen dripping from its mouth, and where the liquid fell on the ground it could be seen visibly eating it away.

"Dripping acid. Great," mumbled Danny and took off toward the enormous ghost.

"Hey, scaly!" he yelled as he fired a ghost ray at the snake. This seemed to have no effect whatsoever, aside from pissing the snake off. The snake turned to face Danny, and spit acid at him. Danny dodged, but not quite quickly enough. A bit of the acid ended up on his leg.

"AH! Get it off! Get it off!" he yelled frantically as he tried to wipe it away while it was still eating away at his suit. Then he remembered he could go intangible and promptly did so. The remaining acid fell harmlessly through him, and he turned his attention back to the snake. "That all you got?" he asked.

Danny fired multiple ghost rays at the snake, but they didn't seem to affect it at all. Remembering his fight with Fenrir, he tried to attack it with close-range rays, but this didn't work either. He even tried to punch it, but that only got his fist covered in acid.

"Come on, this thing has to have a weak point somewhere," he said to himself as he dodged another stream of acid. That's when he saw it – a blue jagged line on the back of the otherwise green snake. It looked almost like some kind of scar. He was about to go for it, when suddenly the snake was surrounded by a blue light.

On a nearby roof stood a woman wearing a black cloak. Her cloak had a hood, but it was down to reveal a face that was definitely not human – the left side of her face had a human complexion, a blue eye and dark hair, but the right side was a pale blue with white hair and a green eye. Her cape was blown back by the wind to reveal a black-and-white dress, and in her right hand she was holding a staff in the same color-scheme, but with a turquoise crystal at the top. Danny could also glimpse a green gemstone – possibly a pendant of some sort – on her chest. From the crystal on her cane came a bright stream of light, which connected to the blue light around the snake.

"Return to whence you came, Jormungandr!" shouted the woman, and the blue light around the snake started to compress it. Danny just watched in shock as the snake dissolved into light and was sucked into the turquoise gem. The woman then swung her staff, and the residual acid dissolved into the same blue light.

The woman turned to leave, but Danny chased after her. "Hey, wait up!" he called out, but the woman didn't even acknowledge him. She simply raised her staff, and disappeared in a burst of light.

* * *

 _Cloaked woman's POV_

"What did you do?!" yelled the man in the green cloak. He was furious, that much was obvious.

"I'm sorry, father, but I had to. The Halfling had figured out his weak spot. Jormungandr was going to be defeated, I had to do something," said the cloaked woman. "This way, we have him back home and we can help him recover his strength for another attack."

"Very well," said the man calmly, although a hint of anger could still be detected in his voice. "How goes the search for Fenrir?"

"I have yet to locate him, father. It appears as though the Halfling has released him back into Helheim, but this dimension is huge, and he could be anywhere. Not to mention, I have to spend half my time observing the Halfling."

The man nodded. "You are dismissed," he said, and turned away from the woman.

* * *

 _?'s POV_

"My son, I have an important mission for you. Loki has sent his daughter to Midgard to gather intelligence, and you must follow her. She will most likely be disguised as a human girl, but you should be able to identify her. Find her and bring her here, and then return to Midgard to set up a base of operations. Loki has chosen Midgard as his battlefield, and we must be prepared to defend it."

"Yes, Allfather."

* * *

 _ **A/N: So, there you go! Another chapter!**_

 _ **Those of you who know your Norse Mythology should have figured out who the cloaked woman is by now...**_

Asgardian words:  
Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The ghostzone  
Asgard - The part of the ghostzone where the asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: So, a bit of a different chapter here. I wanted to give you guys some backstory on the cloaked woman, and I felt like this would be the best way to do it.**_

 _ **Also, I forgot to mention this earlier, but I have a deviantart (link on my profile) where I have posted some art for this fic. Check it out if you want.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

 _Cloaked Woman's POV_

She didn't want this. She had never wanted this. She didn't want to destroy, or conquer, or hurt people. But she had to.

She had been so alone, for so long. She had been a freak, an outcast, refused even the most basic rights. Cast out from her family, just because some stupid portal had forced its way into the world right where she was standing.

She had tried to hide it, but she had failed. The monsters from the other world, the _jotun_ , they had come after her family. She had to protect them.

They had caught her, and tied her down. She had tried to escape, but she couldn't. Not while the red flowers were there.

They had turned the flowers into a potion, and they had forced her to drink it. It had burned her from the inside. The world had went black.

When she woke up, she was alone. The sky was purple, and filled with portals. Portals like the one which had ruined her life.

She had waited, alone, for an entire lifetime. While she waited, she built a home for herself. She made friends with the _jotun_.

After a while, she regained her happiness.

* * *

Then, her father came to join her.

At first, she was joyful, for she had missed him so. Especially her father, and she was excited to find out she had siblings.

She was less happy to find out her siblings were all animals.

Her father told her what had happened since she left. The Others had tried to create more of the portals, and they had used them to experiment on her father. They had used him as a tool to create monsters. But he had escaped, although without his children. But everything would be okay. He was with her now.

Then came The Others.

They took her father, and locked him in an eternal prison. They forced her to work for them, to keep the _jotun_ away. To control them. And she did.

For hundreds – maybe even thousands – of years, she was alone with the _jotun_. She spoke to them, and got to know them, and even befriended some.

They all came and went, but some left and impression. The hunter with the unbelievable armor. The man in the white clothes who claimed to run a prison – she didn't like him, he reminded her of The Others. The blue man with the boxes.

They taught her about their world. It was not Helheim, it was the _Ghost Zone_ , they weren't _jotun_ , they were _ghosts_.

And once again, she was happy.

* * *

Then, for the second time in her afterlife, her father returned to her. He had broken out of The Other's prison, and taken his other children – her _siblings_ – with him. She befriended them quickly – the wolf with the beautiful red eyes, the snake with the shiny green scales, the horse with the eight strong legs. They were a family, and they had escaped the others.

They found a home on one of the many floating islands, in an abandoned cave. She was happy. But her father wasn't.

He wanted more. He wanted a world. For them, he said, for the family. So they could be happy. So he found a stable portal, and he sent her and her brother – Fenrir – to scout it out. Fenrir didn't return.

She was sent there with a more permanent mission – to find out more about the one who had hurt her brother. She found him, and she realized he was a Halfling. Her father wanted to destroy him, but she didn't see the point. Why should they destroy the lives of all these people? They already had a home, and she was happy. Why did they need an entire world?

But father knew best. She knew that. So she did as he said, and continued to give him information on the Halfling.

She told him how he had friends, and family. She told him how he cared for his home. She told him how all the other people there cared for each other and their home. She told him how she didn't think they deserved to be destroyed.

Her father didn't listen.

When he thought he had enough information, her father sent her other brother, Jormungandr, to destroy the Halfling. He didn't tell her about this.

* * *

She saw the Halfling battle her brother, and she saw when he noticed his weak spot. She had to interfere. She couldn't let her brother get caught. So she used her powers, the ones she had learnt while she waited. She absorbed her brother into her staff, and then returned home. She was scolded by her father, but she was determined she had done the right thing.

This was when she realized her father was no longer the same man she had once known. He was no longer kind, but cruel. He had lost his respect for life, and he had lost his love for other people. The Other's prison had turned him insane.

When her father revealed he had found Fenrir, and that he was planning an all-out attack, she doubted. Her father told her she was to use her powers to lead an army of ghosts, but she had seen the other world, and she thought it deserved to exist. She had also seen the powers of the other world, and she feared her family may perish.

So she decided she should switch sides. She knew that the Halfling was powerful, and that he could help her. With his help, she could defeat her father, without putting her brothers in danger. She could prevent a war. She was sure of it. So she left the Ghost Zone, to find the Halfling. She left her home, to betray her father.

If only the Allfather's son hadn't gotten there first.

* * *

 _ **A/N: Bit of a cliffhanger there, isn't it?**_

Asgardian words:  
Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The Ghost Zone  
Asgard - The part of the Ghost Zone where the Asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa  
Jotun - Ghost (the literal meaning of the word is Giant, but the giants in the myths were far enough from modern-day perception of giants that I might as well use it here)


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N: The entirety of this chapter takes place before the end of the last chapter.**_

 _ **Also, IMPORTANT NOTICE: Tomorrow (July 12th) I will be going on a trip with my family. I am not sure when I'll be back, and for the duration of the trip I will not have any reliable internet access, which means I won't be able to update this story. I'm sorry for this inconvenience.**_

 _ **I would also like to remind you guys that if you like and appreciate this story, please show that. I can see that there are people reading this - the visitors statistic tells me that - but I haven't had anyone leave a review since Chapter 2, which makes me feel like maybe people are reading this and just think it's bad.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

 _Tucker's POV_

"A giant snake? Seriously?" asked Helen. She, Sam, Danny and Tucker were in the cafeteria, discussing the ghost attack from the day before.

"Yeah. Is there anything special about that?" said Tucker.

He briefly wondered how messed up it was that he was used enough to giant ghostly animals attacking that a giant ghost snake didn't seem special to him.

"Uh, aside from it being a giant snake? I don't think so, no. You people have been in this town for too long," said Helen.

"I'm more worried about the ghost lady with the staff," said Sam. Danny nodded in agreement.

"The way she absorbed the snake… I've never seen a ghost do anything like that. Not to mention, she seemed to _know_ that snake. She called it by its name," said Danny.

For a second, Tucker thought he saw Helen flinch.

"Really?" said the transfer student, "Did you catch it?"

"No, not really. Jormun-something, I think," answered Danny.

"Interesting," said Helen, and stood up. "I have to go now, I need to meet someone"

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

As she stood up, Danny noticed how familiar the pendant Helen was wearing looked. He could swear he had seen it somewhere else. If only he could remember where…

* * *

 _Tucker's POV_

Later that day, Helen was mysteriously absent, which confused Tucker. Helen was supposed to join him, Danny and Sam for a movie marathon, but they had waited for at least fifteen minutes and she hadn't shown up.

Come to think about it, they hadn't seen her since their conversation in the cafeteria.

"Okay, I'm tired of waiting. If little miss dancer doesn't want to show up, it's her loss," said Sam.

Tucker couldn't understand why Sam didn't like the girl. Helen was nice, and sweet, and she seemed to care for her new friends quite a lot. She hadn't done anything to deserve this treatment. Why couldn't Sam just accept her?

However, he didn't want to start a fight with one of his two best friends, so he nodded in agreement.

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

As the end credits to the first _Thor_ movie rolled onto the big screen in Sam's basement, Danny's ghost sense went off.

"Uh, guys? I think I have to go deal with this," he said whilst standing up. Shouting his catchphrase of "Going ghost!", he transformed into his ghostly self and leapt off the floor. Invisibly, he phased through the entirety of Sam's house, and landed on the roof. However, when he looked around, there was no ghost to be seen. "Weird," he mumbled and jumped down to the street below.

He was about to go back inside when lightning struck the ground just a few meters from him. A surprised yelp left his mouth as he quickly jumped back. After quickly looking around to find a cause, Danny found himself staring at what was probably one of the most human-looking ghosts he had ever seen.

The ghost had the appearance of a tall and well-built man. He was wearing ancient-looking clothes and he had long ginger hair under a silver helmet – he looked as though he'd stepped out of a museum exhibit on Vikings. If Vikings had blue skin, that is.

"Do not fear me, for I am not here to fight you," said the ghost.

"Oh yeah?" asked Danny, "That's why you nearly fried me with that lightning?"

"That was not my intention. I merely wished to make sure you did not leave before I could talk to you," said the ghost.

"And who are you supposed to be?" asked Sam, who was standing in the doorway to her house, with Tucker close behind her.

The ghost smiled.

"Good question, mortal. I am Thor, spirit of thunder. I am here because your world is threatened, and I have been assigned the task of protecting it," said the ghost.

"Whoa there, Thor? Like, the Norse god?" asked Tucker.

Thor nodded.

"Now, you must listen to me, because we do not have much time. This world will soon be facing a new threat, bigger than any which has come before, and we must work together to defeat it"

* * *

"So, what is this threat you were talking about?" asked Danny. He, Sam, and Tucker were sitting in Sam's basement, having a conversation with the mysterious ghost who claimed to be _the god Thor_. Needless to say, it felt a bit odd.

After their encounter, Danny had changed back into his human form and the group had walked inside to talk. Danny would have been fine with talking outside, but Thor insisted that they go somewhere they couldn't be overheard.

"An extremely powerful _jotun_ …" began Thor, but he was quickly interrupted.

"What's a yo-toon?" asked Tucker.

"I am a _jotun_. The other spirits you have encountered in this town are also _jotun_. Your friend over there is half- _jotun_. I presume that you call us by another name," said Thor.

"Oh. You mean ghosts," said Danny.

"If that is your name for them," said Thor, "Now, if I may continue. An extremely powerful _jotun_ by the name of Loki…"

"Loki's real?" asked Sam. Catching the disappointment in Thor's eyes, she added a quick "Sorry" and let him continue.

"… has decided to invade this world to make it his new home. With him, he has his four children: Fenrir, Jormungandr, Sleipnir and Hel. I believe you have already encountered the first two," said Thor, and the three teenagers just nodded. "I do not know his exact battle plan, but I do know that he has planted a spy in this world, his daughter Hel. If we can find her, she could possibly be coerced into revealing important information about Loki's battle plans and whereabouts. However, she has disguised herself masterfully, and I need you help to find her"

Danny opened his mouth to mention the cloaked woman he had seen during his battle with the snake, but Sam cut him off.

"And why should we trust you? For all we know, you could be the bad guy," said the goth girl and looked Thor in the eyes.

"That is a fair question, young lady. And it is also one to which I have no answer," said Thor, "But you must know, that if you do not help me, and I turn out to be right, your world is doomed"

"Okay then," said Danny quickly, "How do we look for this 'Hel'?"

"While I know naught of her disguised appearance, her true form is that of a woman split in two; her left side appearing almost human and her right appearing as pale and blue as a corpse," said Thor.

"That sounds like the mystery woman you saw, doesn't it?" said Tucker, his question obviously directed at Danny.

Danny nodded.

"Well then, this is good," said Thor, "If you have already seen her, maybe tracking her down won't be that difficult after all"

* * *

 _Loki's POV_

Loki sat on his make-shift throne, waiting for his daughter to return with her next report. She was late. This was unacceptable.

Seconds became minutes, minutes became hours. This could not go on. He had to find her, and bring her back.

He stood up, and pulled up the hood of his green cloak.

* * *

 _ **A/N: There we go! Chapter 5! Quite a bit of extra story here. Also, I'm sorry if the Thor encounter seemed dull or forced, but it was needed to advance the story.**_

Asgardian words:  
Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The ghostzone  
Asgard - The part of the ghostzone where the asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa  
Jotun - Ghost


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N: I'M BACK!**_

 _ **As an apology for the long wait, today you're getting an extra long chapter! Also, I've been writing a lot in my notebook while I've been away, so once I've managed to copy all that to the computer (in other words, probably tomorrow) I will be going on a bit of an upload spam... hopefully.**_

 _ **Anyways, thank you for staying with me, and enjoy!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

 _Danny's POV_

"Well then, I guess it is time for me to leave," said Thor. He, Danny, Sam and Tucker were stood on the sidewalk outside of Sam's house.

Tucker nodded.

"It's almost midnight, and we have school tomorrow," said Tucker, "So we need to sleep. But I promise we'll try to find this Hel chick as soon as possible"

Sam nodded in agreement, and after some hesitation, Danny reluctantly nodded as well.

Thor was about to turn around and leave, but stopped himself.

"I almost forgot," said the god of thunder and held out three bronze amulets, "If you do find Hel, you can use these to contact me. Just hold them and think of me, and I'll get to you as fast as I can"

"Alright," said Danny. He and his friends took one of the amulets each. Shortly thereafter, Thor departed.

* * *

The next day, Helen approached Danny in school. She had been mysteriously absent since their conversation in the cafeteria the day before, and Danny, Tucker and even Sam had begun to worry. They hadn't known her for very long, but disappearing like this just didn't seem like something she would do.

"I have something very important to tell you," said Helen and gave Danny a piece of paper, "Meet me at this place exactly two hours after school ends. Bring Sam and Tucker, but nobody else. Don't let anybody know where you're going. I can't explain now, eyes and ears everywhere"

Danny looked down at the piece of paper. On it was a crudely drawn map of Amity Park, with a red X marking a house in the outskirts of town. Underneath the words 'Abandoned house, Only safe place' were written in messy red letters.

"Hold on," said Danny and looked up, but Helen was already gone.

He didn't see her for the rest of the school day.

* * *

Danny showed his friends the note as soon as he could. Sam was against the idea of meeting Helen – she still didn't quite trust her, and Sam argued that her recent disappearance just made her even more suspicious. Tucker noted that they really weren't ones to talk about disappearing from school, and thus they decided they should follow Helen's instructions.

That is how they found themselves standing outside of what could very well be one of the creepiest abandoned buildings they had ever seen. The fact that the sun was setting only helped set the mood.

"Are you sure we should go in here?" asked Tucker.

"Why not? This place looks lovely. I can see why she chose it," said Sam. "Actually, no I can't. She's not a goth, why would she like this place?" she added after some consideration.

"Because nobody else would expect her to," said Danny, "She seemed pretty scared when she gave me the note. I think she was being followed or watched or something. She must have chosen this place because nobody would go looking for her here"

"Oh. Yeah, that makes sense," said Tucker, and the trio entered the house.

* * *

The inside of the house looked no better than the outside. Dust and cobwebs covered everything, and with every other step the floor creaked loudly. The bookshelves lining the walls were filled with thick books and beautifully patterned carpets covered the floor. The furniture in the room certainly looked expensive, and around the windows hung the remains of what appeared to be silk curtains. The place would have been beautiful, had it not been for the decay that had spread throughout the room. The curtains were bleached by the sunlight and the carpets were rotting. The paint on the furniture was fading or falling off. The wallpapers were hanging halfway off the wall.

It looked like the perfect setting for a horror movie.

"So, where is she?" wondered Tucker aloud.

"I don't know," said Danny, "Maybe she's late?"

"Actually, I'm right here," came Helen's voice from behind the group. However, when they turned around to look, what awaited them was not their classmate.

Instead, there stood the cloaked woman from the roof – although said cloak was missing now. Instead, she was wearing a black and white dress with matching boots and accessories. Her black-and-white hair hung loose across her shoulders, and her skin was just as before divided into human and blue. While her right eye was a deep blue, her left was green and slightly glowing.

On her chest sat a green gem. The gem from Helen's pendant.

"Helen, you… how… what?!" protested Danny, " _You're_ Hel?"

Hel – or Helen? – nodded.

"I see Thor got here first. He probably told you all about how I'm Loki's daughter and how I'm evil and want to destroy the world," said the woman.

"Yeah, and that's why we're calling him here!" said Sam and grabbed the bronze amulet Thor had given her.

"Wait!" shouted Hel, Danny and Tucker in unison, but it was too late. In a flash of light – caused by a lightning strike outside – appeared Thor, standing tall right behind Hel.

"I see you found the girl. I must admit, I had expected this to take more time," said Thor. Hel spun around, and was faced with the God of Thunder raising his hammer to strike. The Goddess shrieked in fear and dodged the strike. She quickly rolled out of the way and backed up into a corner of the room.

"Please, I can explain!" screamed Hel, "I'm not here to hurt anyone! I just want to…"

She was cut off by Sam throwing a book at her. The goddess tried to dodge, but as she was stood in the corner the book bounced off the wall and hit the back of her head making her fall forwards and onto her knees.

"Why aren't you doing anything?" hissed Sam at Danny, who had been stood frozen since Thor appeared.

"I just think we should give her a chance. Or, well, at least listen to what she has to say," answered Danny.

Thor obviously didn't agree, as he had taken the opportunity to storm right across the room. He was stood in front of Hel, with his hammer once again raised to strike. This time, Hel was already hunched over from when Sam had hit her with the book, and had no way of dodging.

As the God of Thunder let his hammer fall, Hel quietly whispered, "I'm sorry," and brought her hand up. A bright blue light erupted from her hand and when it cleared an ectopus had appeared in the path of the hammer. While Thor was distracted, Hel went intangible and fell through the floor.

* * *

They didn't see Hel again after that. After a few hours of searching for her in the immediate area, Thor left saying he had some important business to attend to back in Asgard, whatever that was.

That night, when Danny was asleep, Hel came to him in his dream.

* * *

" _I'm sorry it had to be this way," said Hel. She and Danny were stood atop a hill in the Ghost Zone. The grass on the hill was a dark blue, and the normally purple sky was too dark for any color to be discerned. A cold breeze ran across the hill, even though there normally was no wind in the Ghost Zone. But somehow, Danny still knew that that's where they were._

" _Where are we?" asked the half-ghost._

 _Hel chuckled._

" _We're in your dream, Halfling. Didn't you read up on me? I am Hel, worshipped by the ancient Nordics as the Goddess of Death. I have certain… influences over the minds of other ghosts, including the ability to dreamwalk. This was the only way I could think of to talk to you," explained the Goddess and gestured to the world around them._

 _Danny nodded. He was about to ask why she hadn't just contacted him like this from the start, but Hel interrupted him._

" _Doing this is very difficult for me. Even though I'm pretty sure I am one of the oldest ghosts you have ever met – aside from that Clockwork guy, I know you've met him at least once and I wouldn't be surprised if he's older than the universe itself – my powers are very underdeveloped, and on top of that my physical location is usually far from yours. It would have been easier for me to contact you in person than by contacting you in your dreams, had it not been for your meddling friends. Speaking of them, I would prefer if you didn't tell them about this," said the Goddess, and after a moment she added, "And yes, I can read your mind when I'm in your dream. But that's not what's important here"_

 _The Goddess of Death stepped closer to Danny, and continued her speech._

" _I am here because I wanted to tell you that I have betrayed my father. I am not sure how much Thor told you of the situation, but the one who desires to own this world is my father Loki, not me. I have foolishly followed him, because I was under the impression that the family I was born into was the most important to me, but after spending time in your human world I have come to realize that my father's judgement has long since gone clouded. He no longer cares for our family, and is instead using us for his own selfish aims._

 _When I came to this world and saw how the people here would love each other as equals, even if no blood bonds existed, I realized that I could love and be loved the same way. Family doesn't end with blood, and it doesn't begin there either. As Helen Andersson, I experienced the love of friendship, and I have finally understood that such love is equally important to familial love, if not more._

 _I love my father, but what he is doing is wrong, and I can no longer stand for it. I am done with helping him bring chaos and destruction._

 _The peoples of this world do not deserve to suffer just so that he can have a world of his own. I was happy in the Ghost Zone, and so were my brothers. We have no reason to desire this world, other than our wish to make our father happy. And now, I have come to realize that even if we do take this world, my father will not be satisfied. He will continue to destroy and conquer for the rest of his existence, if he is not stopped._

 _I will not have any more people get hurt because of him. I will not let him destroy this world, nor will I let him send my brothers unprepared into battle. I forgive you for hurting them, by the way – you didn't know any better. Before you ask, they were the wolf and the serpent. Fenrir and Jormungandr._

 _Either way, in this battle, I stand not on the side on my father, but on the side of your people. Any questions?"_

 _Danny nodded._

" _Yeah, just one thing: Why did you come to me about this? I mean, sure, I'm some kind of hero, but I don't really have that much influence over other people, and I don't have access to any big military power either. Wouldn't it be better to turn to, say, Thor and his friends?" asked the teen, and Hel responded by putting her left hand on his shoulder._

" _Because I trust you," said the Goddess, "That, and you remind me of myself when I was your age. After all, I too once walked the earth as a Halfling"_

* * *

 _ **A/N: BOOM. Not one, but TWO big reveals in a single chapter.**_

 _ **The story's going to be moving along pretty fast in the next few chapters. It might also get a bit dark (depending on your definition of that word) but not enough that I feel the need to up the rating. Also, I should mention, that dream isn't finished, and it will continue in the next chapter. Just, you know, fyi.**_

Asgardian words:  
Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The ghostzone  
Asgard - The part of the ghostzone where the asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa  
Jotun - Ghost


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N: Hello everyone! So, I know I promised an upload spree, but as it turns out re-writing what you have already written by hand on the computer is extremely tiring and also quite boring. However, as it turns out, these originally hand-written chapters all seem to turn out a bit longer than my regular chapters - probably due to my lack of a word counter when writing by hand.**_

 _ **Also, I know that this is going to seem selfish and stuff, but if you like this story enough to read it, could you maybe spare a minute or two to review it? I know you exist - the statistics tell me as much - but it just doesn't feel like you have any readers at all unless they make themselves known. I haven't gotten a review since chapter 2, and this lack of appreciation is really killing my motivation.**_

 _ **That said, here's the story! Enjoy!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

 _Danny's POV_

 _"Wait, what?" asked Danny in surprise, "You're a Halfa? How? I thought that was only possible if you had an accident with a Ghost Portal?"_

 _Hel, Goddess of Death and apparently former Halfa, smiled._

" _And what's to say I didn't? While your manufactured portals truly are a thing of the new age, natural portals have occurred since the dawn of time. One of them simply happened to open around me," answered Hel, "While I'm pretty sure I'm the only one to come back as a full ghosts, there have been many of us across history. Why do you think the ghosts already had a name for us?"_

 _That did make sense. Danny_ had _always wondered where that name had come from._

" _Okay," said Danny, "Is that why you look like you do? You know, the split in two thing?"_

" _You don't say," said Hel sarcastically, "In all seriousness though, I'm fairly sure my origins are the reason I am as powerful as I am. Back when I was alive – or half-alive at least – I had an ice core like you, and when I died and came back as a full ghost I got another core, a control core. I am – as far as I know – the only ghost in the Zone with two cores, and that's got to count for something. However, for reasons I'd rather not talk about, my powers are highly underdeveloped. Many strong ghosts, including the other Asgardians and that Ghost King guy, can easily overpower me. Were I at my full strength, I would be able to take on any ghost in a fair fight – with exception for Clockwork, of course, I know he doesn't like that title but the guy is practically God – and win. Of course, I wouldn't do that. I'm not a big fan of fighting"_

 _By now, Hel's hand had dropped back to her side and she had stepped back from Danny. For a moment, she was absolutely still – as if she weren't actually there – and then she suddenly started to panic._

" _I have to go," said the Goddess, "My father has found me and he is not happy. He's found a mindstone. I am truly sorry, Danny, I wish I could help you more but there is no time. Go, prepare for battle, and for the love of everything, DON'T tell your friends about this. They won't trust you anymore"_

 _Without further explanation, the Goddess dissolved into the same blue light Danny had seen at the battle with Jormungandr. For a moment, he was alone on the blue hill._

 _And then Danny woke up._

* * *

The next day at school was normal – almost too normal. No ghost attacks, no surprise tests, nothing unusual whatsoever. Except for the fact that 'Helen' was still missing, but Danny knew the reason for that.

One day like this wasn't that big of a deal. In fact, Danny was glad that the universe finally seemed to be giving him a break. When the days went on like this for two weeks, however, Danny started to suspect something was wrong.

And of course, 'Helen' was still missing.

"It feels weird," Sam had said one day when they were sat down in the cafeteria, "Like the calm before the storm or something"

Danny couldn't agree more.

* * *

 _Sam's POV_

The next day, all hell broke loose.

The trio was sat in Tucker's room discussing the recent events – or lack of events, to be more precise, when a dark shape flew past the window.

"What was that?" asked Tucker, and went to look out the window. His friends quickly followed him. They were used to ghosts popping up here and there all the time, and this weird calm had actually gotten them bored.

However, when they looked out the window everything seemed normal, so they went to sit down again, and resume their discussion.

That's when The Flash came.

No, not the superhero. A great flash of blue light erupted from the sky and filled the room. Except, unlike most flashes of light, this one didn't fade away. It just got stronger.

"What's going on?" shrieked Sam and put her arms up in an attempt to cover her eyes. It didn't work, but it had been worth a try.

"I don't know," shouted Danny's voice from the left of her.

Sam felt a hand grab her arm, and suddenly she felt very light. The world seemed to disappear around her – she guessed Danny was phasing them through something.

"You can open your eyes now," came Danny's voice a few seconds later, and Sam felt her sudden weightlessness disappear. It took a while for her sight to return, but eventually Danny's worried face came into view. The three were stood in Tucker's basement, and while it was a lot brighter than basements usually were, it wasn't enough to burn her eyes like it had upstairs. The unnatural blue light was seeping in through the door, but thankfully it was only enough to light up the room.

"What was that?" asked Tucker for the second time this day.

"I don't know, answered Sam, "But I doubt it was anything good"

* * *

 _Tucker's POV_

For a while the three sat in Tucker's basement, waiting for the light to fade. Absently, Tucker wondered if his parents were alright – after all they were up there in the blinding light.

In a corner of the room Danny – who was still in his ghost form and didn't look like he was about to change back any time soon – and Sam had huddled together. Had the situation been any different, Tucker would have asked them to get a room. Instead he just sighed and started playing some handheld game he had in his pocket.

About an hour later, Tucker heard noises coming from above. The Flash was still going, so he couldn't go up and check, but it sounded suspiciously like combat boots stomping on the floor of his living room. Danny instructed him and Sam to stay close, so that he could get them out if necessary.

The boots never went down to the basement, but Tucker could swear there were more footsteps leaving the house than the ones who had entered.

Eventually the light faded, leaving them in darkness. After a few moments stumbling in the dark, Tucker found the light switch. The light from the small ceiling lamp was nothing compared to the illumination of The Flash, but it was enough for them to see clearly.

"Stay here," said Danny and flew up towards the ceiling, "I'll check if the coast is clear"

And so the ghost boy went invisible, leaving Tucker and Sam alone in the basement.

"I hope he brings back some food," said Tucker and went back to his game.

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

As it turned out, the coast was far from clear.

When Danny invisibly slipped through the roof of his friend's house, he was faced by a ginormous ghost army. He had only seen a gathering of ghosts that large once before in his life, and that was when he was leading them. To see this many ghosts in an army fighting _against_ him was certainly an experience.

Unlike most ghost armies, this one didn't seem to have any kind of uniform. Instead it was assembled from seemingly random ghosts of different kinds. If he looked closely, Danny could recognize some of them. Skulker was there, and Technus was there, and even the Box Ghost was there, along with thousands upon thousands of ghosts Danny had never seen before.

The majority of the ghosts were flying away from Amity Park – probably on their way to attack other cities, Danny realized – but a handful of them were busy patrolling the streets and homes of the small town, occasionally carrying out a citizen or two and bringing them… somewhere. The people were clearly conscious – their eyes were open and they occasionally moved a bit – but they didn't show any resistance. A dazed look could be found in all of their eyes, almost as if they'd been hypnotized.

The way they stared straight into nothing, no free will present behind their eyes, all of it made Danny feel sick. But he had to know more. Reluctantly, he let his gaze follow one of the ghosts carrying a prisoner up into the sky.

And if the city was bad, the sky was a nightmare.

The normally blue sky had taken on an eerie purple glow, and all across it portals to the Ghost Zone had been torn open. Some were small, some were bigger, and straight over Danny's head was a huge rift, as wide as a park. Ghosts were zipping about in every direction, carrying around prisoners and weapons and other… _things_. Danny didn't know what half of them were, but none of them looked like anything he'd like to get near. In the middle of it all sat a woman atop an eight-legged horse. A very familiar woman.

"It can't be," mumbled Danny as he flew up to get a closer look. But the woman was none other than Hel, staff in hand and eyes glowing. There was no doubt as to the woman's identity.

"Go, my army of ghosts! Conquer this lowly realm!" commanded the Goddess, her voice sounding completely different from Danny's earlier encounters with her. And that's when he noticed it. The gem on her chest, which normally was a green pentagon, had been replaced by a red sphere. As Danny looked at the gem, a strange urge to _command, control, conquer, rule_ filled the boy, and he quickly averted his eyes. Hel's words from his dream came to mind.

" _My father has found me and he is not happy. He's found a mindstone,"_

A mindstone. Danny had no idea what that was, but he could guess what it did. Hel was being controlled, and he was not sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Feeling utterly defeated, Danny flew back to his friends.

* * *

 ** _A/N: Remember how I told you it was about to get a bit dark? Well, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration. It's not really getting much darker than this, at least not for as far as I have written. While I do have the story planned out, I'm not sure exactly how the end will go about happening. Yet._**

Asgardian words:

Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The ghostzone  
Asgard - The part of the ghostzone where the asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa  
Jotun - Ghost


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N: So sorry about the late - and more importantly, short - chapter. I've been suffering severe Writer's Block, but I managed to get this written. Also, I had to scrap a whole lot of the stuff I'd written when I was away because I realized it didn't fit with the rest of the story. Either way, enjoy!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

 _Sam's POV_

When Danny phased through the roof, he looked downright sick.

"Are you okay?" asked Sam as her best friend landed in front of her. Danny collapsed onto the ground and Sam crouched beside him, holding him up in a hug. Tucker was quick to join them, kneeling beside Sam.

"I'm fine," said Danny after a few seconds, "But Amity Park isn't"

He told them about what he'd seen out there, about the army and the portals and the hypnotized humans, and how Hel had been leading them. By the end of it all, Sam felt just as ill as Danny had looked when he came in. She couldn't see Tucker from where she was sitting, but she would be willing to bet quite a lot he looked equally disturbed.

"That's awful!" exclaimed Tucker, "Where will we now get food?"

Sam merely shot him a glare and pulled Danny in for another hug.

In all honesty, Sam wanted nothing more than to throw up, but she had to stay strong now.

* * *

"So, what do we do now?" asked Tucker once everyone had calmed down, "We can't go outside, but we can't stay here either. We're gonna run out of food!"

"I agree," said Sam, "This place isn't ideal. If we could somehow get over to FentonWorks…"

"Well, we can!" said Danny, who had long since changed back into his human form, "I can fly you there through the ground! No chance of them finding us there! I think we all need some rest first, but tomorrow I'll go check if it's safe first thing in the morning. Then, if the coast is clear, I'll come get you"

"Sounds like a plan," said Tucker. Sam nodded in agreement.

* * *

The trio took turns sleeping that night, one of them always staying awake to keep watch. When morning came around all three were starving, but going upstairs to try and find any food was too risky.

Instead, the teens immediately initiated their plan. Danny transformed into his ghost form, and proceeded to turn himself intangible and fly off in the general direction of his home.

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

In a few minutes, Danny reached the ghost shield, which thankfully was still up. He obviously couldn't see it – being underground and all – but he sure felt it when he slammed face first into it. _I really need to stop forgetting about that_ , thought the ghost boy. It was now that he realized the flaw in their plan – he couldn't get through the shield without turning human, but to turn human he would have to get above ground and turn visible. Sure, it would only be for about a second while he and his friends ran in, and then they'd be safe, but some of the ghosts he'd encountered were pretty damn fast, and if they were nearby that small window of time would be more than enough for something to go wrong. Not to mention, they would almost definitely be noticed, and that was exactly what they wanted to avoid. If the ghosts knew he was still in town, and were aware of his exact location, you could bet they'd do everything in their power to get to him. The ghost shield was still standing strong, but Danny was sure it would fail if the ghosts put enough power into getting rid of it.

Even so, the plan was still the best one they had. Feeling slightly defeated, Danny turned around and flew – _could it be called flying, if he was underground?_ he thought absently – back to his friends.

* * *

 _Sam's POV_

About fifteen minutes after he had left, Danny burst through the wall of Tucker's basement. It was longer than Sam had been expecting, and she had started to get a bit worried. However, at her friend's return, a small smile grazed her lips.

"About time you got back," said Tucker, "Did you bring any food? I've missed, like, a bazillion feedings by now"

The reminder of food just made Sam even hungrier. Given that she actually followed a healthy schedule for eating, it had been even longer since she had last eaten.

"No, Tucker, I don't have any food," said Danny with a hint of a smile on his face, before changing his expression to a more serious one, "We have a bigger problem at hand though"

"What's wrong?" asked Sam, "Has something happened to FentonWorks? Is the ghost shield down or something?"

She didn't realize what she was saying until after the words had left her mouth.

"No," answered Danny, "And that's the problem. I mean, the ghost shield still being up is technically a good sign – it means the place is still safe. But I can't get through it in this form. I can, of course, get through it in my human form, but I can hardly switch forms underground. Our best way of getting in would be if I dropped you off outside the shield and let you run in, turned human, and then walked through, but even then there would be a few seconds when we all were outside the shield, completely unprotected. And some of these ghosts are _fast_. What's more, even if we _do_ get inside unharmed, by then the ghosts will surely have seen us. They know who I am, and they see me as a threat. It is very possible that once they know I'm in there, they will do everything in their power to get to me. FentonWorks is fine at the moment, but that's probably just because they don't see it as much of a threat."

"Probably," said Tucker, "But not definitely. We don't know how they will act, and even if they do go for an all-out attack, we don't know if they're strong enough to get in. I talked to your parents the other day – because as crazy as they can be, they do have some of the coolest tech on the planet – and they've been making some upgrades to the shield recently. FentonWorks is still our best bet"

And so, the trio of teens left for the one place on Earth that could possibly be safe from the invasion.

* * *

 _ **A/N: Hope it wasn't**_ **that _terrible, even if it was written at half past midnight with writer's block._**

Asgardian words:

Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The ghostzone  
Asgard - The part of the ghostzone where the asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa  
Jotun - Ghost


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N: Once again, sorry for the short chapter. I'll try to make longer ones in the future, but this felt like a good place to end this one. Enjoy!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

Sam had never liked it when Danny phased her through stuff. It felt weird, almost unreal, and to her it was extremely uncomfortable. Now, phasing through a wall or something wasn't that bad – it usually only lasted for about a second. Travelling halfway across town underground, however? That was hell.

Part of her still wondered why they hadn't just gone in the air – after all, Danny could easily turn them invisible – but then she remembered the look on her friend's face when he'd returned from his first 'recon mission'. If he'd felt that bad after just looking around for a couple minutes, she could see why he wanted to avoid a ten-minute flight through it all.

Her eyes and ears were useless down here, but she could feel Danny's hand in her own, and squeezed it to give what little support she could.

She was pretty sure she felt him squeeze back.

* * *

Danny thought he knew how far away his home was, but when he slammed straight into the ghost shield it came as a complete surprise. His friends flew straight through it – even though they were affected by his ghost powers they were still human – and he almost dropped them. He let out an unheard sigh of relief when he invisibly carried them all up through the ground. If he'd dropped them, they would have materialized in the ground, and he didn't want to think of what could have happened then.

"You guys okay?" he whispered as they hovered invisibly in the air. His friends nodded, and after looking around to make sure no ghosts were looking – there were quite a few nearby, but none of them seemed to be paying enough attention to notice if the grass flattened a bit – he landed them on the ground. He still didn't let go of the invisibility, though.

"So, how are we doing this?" asked Sam, "The moment we go visible, those guys are gonna see us, and I would rather not be hit by those things"

She was referring to the ridiculously large guns a couple of the ghosts were carrying around. From the looks of them, one hit from those and any normal human would be toast.

"It seems as though you guys can pass through the shield even when I'm using my powers on you," said Danny, "If you guys just go in, then I let go of you, by the time you turn visible you'll already be completely inside, and completely safe. Then, I'll turn human and run through the shield as fast as I can. It's the safest alternative we have"

"Alright," said Tucker, "Safety and hopefully food, here I come!"

The dark-skinned geek stepped through the shield, careful not to let go of Danny. Sam quickly followed, and once the two were inside, Danny let go. Sam and Tucker immediately became visible – and were thus noticed by the ghost army – but the sudden attacks couldn't reach them. They were safe.

However, this did pose a new problem. With all the ghosts having noticed Sam and Tucker seemingly appearing out of nowhere, there was no opportunity for Danny to safely sneak inside. Still, he had to try. Taking a deep breath, the boy turned human and sprinted inside.

As soon as he turned visible, the ghost army's attacks switched targets to him. He was within the safety of the shield in a matter of seconds, but even that was just a bit too slow. A Ghost Ray hit his left leg, and as he fell forward he cried out in a mixture of surprise and pain. That had hurt way more than a simple Ghost Ray should.

"Danny! Are you okay?!" shouted Sam as she and Tucker helped pull him further into the safe zone.

"Yeah, I think so," answered the ghost boy. Sam stretched out her hand to help him up, and he gratefully took it. In truth his leg was still hurting, but as he looked down he found that his clothes were completely intact. There was a bit of dirt and some grass smudges on his jeans, and he'd gotten a scratch on his arm from breaking his fall, but there was no visible sign of injury on his leg. Usually, Ghost Rays left a slight burn mark on clothing that they hit, but apparently not these. _That's weird,_ he thought, but his thoughts were interrupted.

"Danny? Sam? Tucker? Is that really you?" asked a voice from the front door to his house. Standing in the doorway was Jazz, his one and only big sister, and Danny was secretly relieved she was there. He'd assumed his family had been taken, and that the ghost shield only was there because it had been activated automatically or something.

"Hey, Jazz," he said nonchalantly, "Sorry I'm late for dinner"

Two seconds later, his sister had rushed forward and was crushing him in a hug.

"Can't… breathe…" he wheezed as his friends just laughed. He was just kidding – after all, he could get out of the hug at any time if he really wanted to – and he was pretty sure his friends and sister knew that. The hug actually did hurt a bit, but he'd made his friends laugh for the first time since The Flash and that was worth it.

His sister loosened her grip on him, but didn't let go for a few minutes. The situation should have been awkward, what with his friends looking on and all, but it didn't.

"I was so worried," whispered Jazz, quietly enough that Danny was pretty sure Sam and Tucker couldn't hear it. Danny's only response was to hug his sister back.

Eventually Jazz pulled back, and Danny could see just how messed up she looked. Her hair was tousled and her eyes were red – probably from crying, Danny realized. She had a bruise on her left cheek, and she was leaning a bit too much on her left leg. Despite it all, she was smiling.

"Okay, not to interrupt your little family reunion, but is there any food here? I'm starving!" said Tucker, and everyone looked at him. For a moment, they were all quiet, but then Sam burst out laughing, and the others soon joined.

Danny didn't know about the others, but he wasn't just laughing at Tucker. He was laughing because he was safe, his friends were safe, and for the first time since he'd seen Hel up on her horse, he felt hope.

* * *

 _ **A/N: Hope you liked it!**_

 ** _Oh, and, if Jazz seems OOC, that's probably because I might be unconsciously making her more like me. Being a big sister myself I have always related to her - my first thought upon seeing her for the first time was_ THAT'S ME. _So yeah, sorry if that happens._**

Asgardian words:  
Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The Ghost Zone  
Asgard - The part of the Ghost Zone where the Asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa  
Jotun - Ghost


	10. Chapter 10

_**A/N: CHAPTER 10! And we've still got a bit to go, too.**_

 _ **I realize I forgot to update yesterday, and I am SO sorry for that! There's really no good excuse, I just sort of... forgot. Sorry!**_

 _ **Either way, here's the new chapter! Enjoy!**_

* * *

 __ **Chapter 10**

 _General POV_

"So, what happened here?" asked Danny. He, Jazz, Sam and Tucker were sat down in the Fentons' living room. "Where are mom and Dad?"

The inside of FentonWorks was remarkably undamaged by the invasion. Aside from the mess, which was a constant in this household, the entire building was in prime condition. The only thing missing was, well, half of the family.

"Well…" began Jazz,

* * *

 _Jazz's POV, 24 hours earlier_

Jazz Fenton was sat in her room, studying. She normally didn't have much trouble with these kinds of problems, but there was this one question she couldn't find the answer to, no matter how many times she re-read the book.

"Jazz, sweetie?" came Maddie's voice from the doorway, and Jazz looked up.

"Yes, mom?" asked the girl, "What is it?"

"Your father and I are leaving for a bit. One of our scanners detected some unusual activity in the Ghost Zone, and we're going there to investigate it. We should be back quickly, but I wanted to let you know before we left so you wouldn't worry," said her mother.

"Oh. Yeah, thanks for telling me," said Jazz and went back to studying.

* * *

A few minutes later, Jazz felt thirsty and went to get a drink in the kitchen. However, as she was walking down the stairs a really bright light filled the room. Surprised, she lifted her arms to cover her eyes – and completely forgot where she was standing. The quick shift of balance caused her to fall – all the way down the stairs. She was pretty sure she hit her head – along with various other body parts – as even though the light had yet to fade, blackness was creeping in at the edges of her vision. The last thing she heard before slipping into unconsciousness was the blaring of the house's ghost alarms, and the slight fizzling sound that accompanied the ghost shield starting up outside.

* * *

When Jazz came to, she was alone. Her head ached, and her right leg felt like it had been ran over by a truck. She was pretty sure it wasn't broken, though. She'd had broken limbs before, and as much as this hurt it was nothing compared to then.

The light had faded, and she was lying almost motionlessly at the bottom of the stairs. With a groan she forced herself to sit up, the sudden movement making her head spin. She felt like throwing up, but that wasn't an option right now. Carefully she stood up – leaning heavily on the wall for support – and made her way towards the kitchen.

After rummaging around in a few boxes, she found what she was looking for. Her parents had in a stroke of genius come up with a pill that would speed up a human's healing process significantly. It was only for use in emergencies, but she figured this was one. She downed one of the pills with a glass of water, and then slowly made her way towards the living room, where she lay down in the couch to rest.

Logically, she knew that she might very well have a concussion and should be making sure to stay awake, but she just couldn't bring herself to care. Besides, she had the Fenton Miracle cure – not the actual name, but she couldn't be bothered to remember what it was actually called – in her system. Surely a bit of rest would be fine, she reasoned as she slowly fell asleep on the couch.

* * *

When Jazz woke up, she had no idea how long she'd slept. A quick glance at the clock on the wall told her she'd slept for about three hours. Thankfully, the pill had worked as it should, and her head felt completely fine.

That's when she realized, she was still on the couch in the living room. She didn't even have a blanket. If her parents had found her, they would have tried to get her up to her room or at least put a blanket on her. But she was sitting in the couch, alone and with no idea where the rest of her family was.

"Mom? Dad?" she asked loudly.

When she got no response she rushed down to the basement to find the Specter Speeder still gone and the Ghost Zone portal shut down. Vaguely remembering the alarms she had heard while she fell down the stairs, the young woman realized the house's emergency shutdown procedures must have been activated – and her parents were still in the Ghost Zone.

Still, she knew what had happened to them, which was more than she could say about Danny. Her brother had gone to a friend's house earlier – was it Tucker? – and she hadn't seen him return. Jazz rushed up to his room, to see if he was there, but she couldn't see him anywhere.

What she did see, however, was what was happening outside.

There were ghosts _everywhere_ , most of them empty-handed but a few of them were carrying around people. Not just any people either, those were her neighbors and friends. All of them had this dazed look in their eyes, staring straight ahead and doing nothing even though they were clearly conscious. A few of them were injured – a girl she recognized from the family across the street was even _bleeding from her head_ , but none of them seemed to care. And for all Jazz knew, Danny and his friends were out there.

The only reason she wasn't was the ghost shield.

She barely made it to the bathroom in time to throw up.

* * *

For the next few hours, Jazz lay crying in her bedroom. She was all alone, her parents were trapped in the Ghost Zone, and her brother was most likely stuck in the middle of a ghost invasion. Normally, she wouldn't be worried – after all, her brother was a freaking _superhero_ , but something about those people outside had filled her with despair. Besides, the invasion had been going on for so long without any sign of it getting better, and there was no sign of Danny. If there was something he could do, surely he would have done it by now.

Eventually, her mind wandered to the realization that this would be her life for the rest of, well, forever. FentonWorks was completely self-sufficient, complete with a water pump, a generator and even a small underground farm. Granted, the water wasn't always entirely clean and the only plant they could grow in the dark was some tasteless genetically engineered experiment that was supposed to hold loads of nutrients or something – that wasn't the point. The point was she could theoretically survive here long enough to live a full human life.

That is, if you could call what her existence was rapidly devolving into a life.

Sighing, the young woman shifted her position slightly. After a few hours, she managed to cry herself to sleep.

The morning after – if it could be called a morning, what with the endless portals blocking almost the entire sky from view – Jazz was woken up by her hunger. She realized she hadn't eaten anything since lunch the day before, and by now she was starving. Slowly the young woman got up and made for the kitchen, leaning slightly on her left leg the entire time – while her headache was completely gone, her leg still hurt a bit.

Thankfully, the kitchen was stocked, so it would be a while before she had to start eating the weird underground plant experiment. She couldn't be bothered to cook anything properly so she settled for making a quick sandwich, which she later downed together with a big glass of orange juice.

She didn't bother to wash the dishes; instead she just put everything on the kitchen counter. She could clean it later.

As she was walking back to her room, she heard a voice from outside. A very familiar voice.

"Danny! Are you okay?!"

Sam. That was Sam's voice. And she was talking about Danny.

Jazz immediately bolted for the door. Her brother was here, and he was safe, and she had to see him.

"Danny? Sam? Tucker? Is that you?"

* * *

 _General POV, present time_

"And, well, you know what happened next," finished Jazz, "Any questions?"

There was a moment of silence.

"Okay, so, if you have so much food, why have I still not gotten any?" asked Tucker, and everyone – including the tech-geek himself – laughed.

* * *

 ** _A/N: There you go!_**

Asgardian words:  
Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The Ghost Zone  
Asgard - The part of the Ghost Zone where the Asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa  
Jotun - Ghost


	11. Chapter 11

_**A/N: Bit of a warning here, toward the end of this chapter there is a somewhat graphic description of a wound. I considered upping the rating, but then I realized Phantom of Truth (which is an awesome fic) has been uploaded to this site as a T-rated fic and compared to that this is nothing. Still, if that isn't your kind of thing, feel free to skip everything from the sentence "He was wrong." and forward.**_

 ** _Either way, Enjoy!_**

* * *

 **Chapter 11**

 _Danny's POV_

As funny as it was to laugh about Tucker and his food obsession, he had a point. With exception for Jazz, none of them had eaten anything since the day before, and they were all starving.

Jazz and Danny led the group into their kitchen, and together the four all started work on something to eat. They had a bit of an argument about exactly what this meal should contain, but they managed to settle on a pasta/chicken salad – with one serving of meat free salad for Sam, of course.

As they ate, Danny suppressed all thoughts of the outside invasion. Instead, he and the others talked about normal things like school or the weather or that new funny video someone had found on the internet. It felt nice to get a break from the stress, even if it was only temporary.

After they had eaten, though, they decided they couldn't ignore the situation anymore.

"So, what's the plan?" asked Jazz as they sat down in the living room, "I mean, you've got one, right?"

Danny, Sam and Tucker let out nervous laughs.

"Actually… We're still working on that… Sort of," said Tucker, and pointedly refused to look Jazz in the eyes.

"You WHAT!?" exclaimed Jazz and stood up.

"Calm down, sis!" said Danny hastily, "Actually, I do have a plan. I mean, it's not 100% foolproof, and there are a few things I've got to work out, but it's a plan."

Everyone's eyes turned to the boy.

"Please don't tell me you're gonna suggest making friends with that Hel lady," said Sam and Danny winced.

"Actually," he said, "That's exactly what I'm going to do. She's a very powerful ghost and she could be really helpful. Now, I know that it seems like she's leading the army, but I have reason to believe she is being controlled. If I can free her, maybe she'll feel indebted to me or something and help us defeat… whoever is controlling her"

Danny didn't mention that he knew exactly who was controlling her, or exactly how powerful she was. He also didn't mention that he had no idea how he was going to break the mind control – he guessed that red gem – had she called it a mindstone? – had something to do with it, and maybe if he could get to that he could break the spell.

"Well, it sounds risky, but I guess it's all we got," said Jazz, "So, when are we doing this?"

"Okay, first of all, it's _me_ , not we. If I'm gonna have any chance at this I'll need to sneak up on her, and I hate to say this but you guys aren't exactly the best at sneaking," said Danny. He'd learned long ago that saying 'It's too dangerous for you' never worked. "Second, I will be going as soon as possible, but there is a slight problem that needs to be solved first."

"A problem? What is it? The fact that _your entire plan revolves around getting help from a psychopath?_ " asked Sam, sounding decidedly unimpressed.

"Actually, it's the ghost shield. I can't get through it in ghost form, and since the incident when we entered this place the ghost army has placed, like, a billion guards outside. If I go through as a visible human, I'll be toast in an instant" answered Danny.

"Oh! I have a solution to that!" said Jazz, standing up again, "Mom and dad have been working on this thing, that's supposed to allow specific ghosts through the Ghost Shield. They finished it about an hour before they left, but obviously you were gone so we couldn't configure it for you. It's downstairs, we can go set it up right now!"

Jazz excitedly started walking toward the basement door, and Danny stood up to follow her, but his leg picked that exact moment to start hurting. It had been aching on and off since he'd gotten hit, but it hadn't been this bad before.

With a yelp that was half surprise, half pain the boy fell to his knees on the ground. He tried to sit so he would relieve pressure on the wounded leg, but it didn't help.

"Danny!" shouted his friends and sister, but he paid them no mind as they hurried over to help him. The pain in his leg was only getting worse, and it was starting to spread. It felt like he was burning up from the inside, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He screamed out in pain and collapsed on the floor, vaguely aware of his sister picking him up and hugging him as the world faded away.

* * *

When Danny woke up, he was in a bed. His leg was still hurting, but nowhere near as bad as it had been before. As he slowly blinked his eyes open, the worried faces of Jazz, Sam and Tucker came into view.

"What happened?" he asked tiredly.

"I don't know, you tell us," said Sam. All the annoyance and sarcasm that had been present in her voice earlier on had completely dissipated, being replaced with a deep worry.

Danny frowned, trying to remember. He'd stood up, and then suddenly pain had shot through his leg and… That was it.

"Leg," he mumbled, "Weird ghost ray"

"That's still bothering you?" asked Tucker in surprise, "But that was ages ago! You usually recover from these things in minutes!"

Jazz just looked confused, so Sam explained.

"Danny got hit by a ghost ray when going through the portal," said the goth, "We didn't think much of it, but apparently it wasn't as regular a ghost ray as it seemed"

"Well, this needs to be looked at," said Jazz determinedly, "Where did you get hit, Danny?"

Danny slowly sat up – using his arm for support – and pointed at a spot on the lower part of his left leg.

"There," he said, "And please be careful; while it's not as bad as before, it still hurts"

He grabbed the bottom of his jeans and started to pull them up, so as to expose whatever potential wound was there, but the fabric caught on something and shot a spike of pain through his leg.

It wasn't that bad; all it did was make him twitch slightly, but his sister noticed.

"Just lay back down, I'll take care of this," said the young woman and bolted out of the room. She came back with a pair of scissors. "When a patient's clothing can't be removed normally without hurting them, a doctor will cut off the clothing. I've seen it on TV, so I think I can do it."

Danny opened his mouth to complain, but Sam cut him off.

"You have at least ten pairs of jeans that are _exactly_ the same as those. Losing one pair isn't that big a tragedy," she said, and Danny had nothing to say to that. Instead, the boy just laid back and stared into the ceiling.

He didn't look, but Danny could hear the sound of Jazz cutting up his jeans. Eventually, the sound stopped, and he felt hands – Sam's, he would guess from the size, - carefully moving away the loose pieces of cloth. This was followed by three stunned gasps.

"What is it, guys?" he asked as he pushed himself up on his elbows to get a look, "Surely it can't be that bad"

He was wrong.

An area about twice as large as his palm had swollen up, and through the middle of it went what looked like a cauterized wound – like if someone had cut him with a really hot knife. The blood vessels around the swelling were highly visible.

How he had been able to walk around with this wound for several hours was a question to which he did not have an answer.

As Danny looked at the wound, it started to hurt more and more – like when you get a papercut and don't notice it until you see the blood and suddenly it starts stinging – but obviously on a larger scale.

No normal ghost ray did this much damage. This ray wasn't meant to scare or control people. It wasn't meant to wreak havoc.

It was meant to kill.

Upon that realization, Danny's eyes promptly rolled back into his head and he fainted.

* * *

 ** _A/N: Sorry about all the blackouts, I just really like being evil sometimes._**

Asgardian words:  
Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The Ghost Zone  
Asgard - The part of the Ghost Zone where the Asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa  
Jotun - Ghost


	12. Chapter 12

_**A/N: Chapter 12!**_

 _ **I'm really not sure what I was doing with this whole damaged leg storyline, to be honest. It wasn't in my original plans, and it's not really that good. I'm putting an end to it.**_

 _ **Also, I've really lost motivation to write this fic, because nobody seems to like it. I know that some people read it, and I'm continuing for you guys, but if I miss a day or two in the future without warning you'll know why.**_

 _ **Speaking of warnings, this Thursday I will be going to a convention and I won't be back until Sunday, so during that time there will be not updates.**_

 _ **Either way, here's the chapter. Enjoy!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 12**

 _Sam's POV_

After Danny fell unconscious again, Sam, Jazz and Tucker – under the lead of Jazz – did their best to take care of the wound. They cleaned it as well as they could, and Jazz found some antibiotic cream that was also supposed to speed up healing, and at the end they wrapped the wound in some clean bandages.

Given that Danny had fainted from shock, they thought he would wake up relatively soon, but he didn't. Instead, he just kept sleeping.

Jazz and Tucker stayed in the room for a while, but after a few hours they left to go prepare dinner. Sam stayed, though. She was so worried about Danny, and even if she knew there wasn't much she could do to help she refused to leave his side.

By now it was pretty obvious that there was more to his unconsciousness than just having fainted from shock.

Sam glanced down at the now bandaged wound. While the entirety of the swelling and the cut were covered, the blood vessels around the bandages were still highly visible. It had spread too; a couple hours ago it had just been for about an inch around the wound, but by now it stretched all the way down to his foot and up above the edge of his cut-off pants. It probably was some kind of infection, but she didn't know what.

Unable to stand it any longer, Sam averted her gaze and instead focused on her friend's sleeping face. Despite the pain he should by all means be in, he looked rather peaceful. As if nothing was wrong in the world, and there wasn't a ghost invasion taking place across the planet, and his entire leg wasn't covered by some weird illness that made his blood vessels glow…

 _Wait, since when were the blood vessels glowing?_ thought Sam as she once again looked down. It wasn't much, but the blood vessels closest to the wound had started to glow a faint red. Not blood red though, more like a pinkish red.

"Guys! Something's happening up here!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, and within seconds Jazz and Tucker were in the room.

"What is it?" asked Jazz, and Sam pointed to the glowing blood vessels.

"That doesn't look good," said Tucker, and Jazz nodded in agreement.

"I think it's time we looked a bit closer at that wound," said Jazz, "We've got plenty of scanning equipment in the lab. Sam, Tucker, help me carry him"

As she spoke, Jazz walked around the bed and put her hands under Danny's shoulders. Sam and Tucker quickly got the gist and grabbed one leg each – Sam grabbing the injured one and being very careful not to hurt her friend. Together, the three carried Danny down into the Fenton's basement.

Briefly, they put Danny down on the ground as Jazz rolled out an examination table.

"This stuff was originally built for examining and possibly dissecting ghosts, but I figure we should be able to use it to help Danny," said Jazz.

* * *

About half an hour and three different scans later, Danny still hadn't woken up. However, Sam thought she might have found the problem.

"Guys! Look at this!" said the goth.

She was looking at the last scan, and something weird had shown up on it. About half an inch deep into the wound lay a small object which was giving off a powerful non-ectoplasmic energy.

"That energy signature looks familiar," said Jazz and typed in a few commands on the computer they were working on. A few moments later, a comparison between the signature and that of an active Specter Deflector came up. They were almost identical.

"Well, that must be what's causing the problems, right?" asked Tucker. Jazz nodded.

"We'll have to get it out."

* * *

 _Jazz's POV_

As it turned out, FentonWorks for some reason had an automatic medical android machine installed. For once, Jazz didn't question her parents. Instead, the young woman was rather grateful. She wanted to be a psychologist, not a surgeon, and besides she was pretty sure you weren't supposed to operate on friends and family anyway.

It took the android – which of course looked like a version of her dad taken straight out of the uncanny valley – a surprisingly short amount of time to finish, and when she came into the room again her brother was already waking up.

"Danny!" she said, "You're awake!"

Her brother responded with a groan as he sat up.

"What happened?" he asked, and upon looking down at his body and noticing he was wearing a whole pair of pants added, "Did someone change my pants while I was asleep?"

Jazz just laughed, happy that her brother was okay, and walked forward to give him a hug.

"Only the Fenton Automatic Surgeon Android," answered Jazz and once again laughed. This time, her brother joined her.

As she pulled back Danny tried to jump down to the floor, but Jazz stopped him.

"You probably shouldn't be walking on that leg yet. We think we've fixed it, and I know you heal faster than others, but you should give it at least a few hours of rest," said the young woman.

Her brother sighed, but nodded.

"Fine," he said.

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

A few minutes later, Danny was crushed by hugs from both of his best friends. They went on and on about being worried and he was pretty sure Tucker actually started crying, but he just laughed it off. He was just glad things were actually getting better again. Now all he had to do was stop that stupid ghost invasion.

And for some reason, that didn't seem nearly as impossible as it had before.

* * *

 _Jazz's POV_

Under the lens of a microscope in the lab lay a small plastic ball filled with a red liquid that Jazz was studying intently. It appeared to be organic material, although so refined it was hardly recognizable. Once, this thing had been a plant, she could tell that much, and it seemed to have very strong anti-ghost properties – strong enough that they had been able to hurt Danny even in human form. She shuddered at the thought of what could have happened if Danny had gone ghost with it inside his leg, or worse, if the plastic ball had broken and released the liquid into his bloodstream.

Either way, that hadn't happened. Disaster averted, she concluded as she put the ball away.

* * *

 _ **A/N: If you didn't get it, that was some form of a Blood Blossom extract. I'm not going to go much deeper into this storyline because as I said I hadn't planned for it and I really want to advance the main story. I'm happy to have it over with and I'm just going to leave it behind me now.**_

 _ **Oh, and, yes, I will not stop giving FentonWorks upgrades it doesn't have in the show. As I said in the first chapter, this takes place after the show has ended, and to me that is a totally valid excuse to throw in a Deus ex Machina or two. Totally not laziness. Nope.**_

 _ **Besides, ancient Greek playwrights did it all the time.**_

Asgardian words:  
Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The ghostzone  
Asgard - The part of the ghostzone where the asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa  
Jotun - Ghost


	13. Chapter 13

_**A/N: I'M BACK! I'm sorry it's been so long! I realize that I said I'd be back earlier than this, but when I said that I failed to factor in Post-Con Depression. I've been in a bad mood for a few days and I feel like anything I could have written then would have been even shittier than my usual writing. Anyway, here's your chapter. Enjoy!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 13**

 _Jazz's POV_

"Ghost shield loophole upgrade, installed!" exclaimed Jazz. "You should be able to get through it now, Danny!"

She, Sam and Tucker were in the OP center. After a few hours of hard work, they had finally figured out how to activate the Fenton Ghost Identifier – a device built to recognize specific ghost signatures – and plug it into the ghost shield. This would – hopefully – allow Danny to pass through the shield. They'd scanned him earlier, and were ready for the first test.

"Okay, going through now," came Danny's voice through the Fenton Phones. The boy was standing invisible in the garden. The only sign he was there was a slight depression in the grass where he was standing, only visible to those who knew what they were looking for.

Jazz watched the live feed from the surveillance cameras as the grass straightened up slightly. Danny had left the ground. A few seconds later a slight fizzle was heard from the shield, and a small person-shaped distortion appeared for a fraction of a second. It attracted the attention of some patrolling ghosts, but upon finding nothing of interest they simply looked away and continued their rounds.

"It worked!" said Danny, and the distortion reappeared in the shield as he presumably flew back through. Seconds later he appeared fully visible in the OP center and landed on the ground.

"Well, that's one problem solved," said Tucker, and Sam nodded.

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

Approximately twenty minutes later, Danny set out on his mission. He was invisible – of course – and armed with not only his powers and a Fenton Thermos, but also a couple of wrist rays that Jazz forced him to bring in case something went wrong. He wasn't entirely sure how they would help, but they weren't a hindrance and they made his sister happy, so he brought them.

Flying through the ghost shield sent a slight static-y feeling down his spine – he wasn't sure if it was uncomfortable, but it was certainly odd. Still, it didn't bother him enough to distract him from his goal.

He had to get to Hel, get that mind stone thing away from her, and then somehow take out Loki with her help. Just another – slightly more challenging – day in Amity Park. He'd been in worse situations.

It dawned on him that nothing about the situation was as terrifying as it had seemed before. While giant ghost armies roaming about kidnapping and hypnotizing people wasn't a pleasant sight in any way, he couldn't help but to feel like both he and everyone around him had overreacted a bit. Looking around he could see that the majority of the ghost army was still busy gathering people from all over the world, but it didn't feel anywhere near as horrible as it had before. _Weird_ , he thought as he continued on toward his destination.

* * *

"Eyes on target," said Danny, feeling every bit like he was a spy in some action film. He'd been flying for five minutes straight and was now hovering only a few meters away from Hel and the great rift. Ghosts were flurrying around him, and he hoped the sound of his voice had been covered by the sweeping sounds they made as they flew by.

Hel looked virtually unchanged. She was still sat in the exact same position, yelling out commands even though she probably didn't need to – she could control ghosts at the opposite end of the planet, and Danny doubted that her voice could reach that far. On her chest sat the mind stone, casting it's ethereal red light over the bottom of her face.

Once again, Danny felt the slight pull of the stone, but it was easy to resist. The pull wasn't meant for him, but for Hel.

It was now that Danny realized, he had no plan whatsoever as to how he should get the mind stone away from Hel. He could, of course, try to sneak up next to her and grab it, but he had a feeling that would only end in disaster – that thing could control ghosts after all, and he was pretty sure direct contact would put him right under its influence. He could also try to blast it off of her, but then he might accidentally harm her. While he was sure she could take it, he didn't want to hurt her unnecessarily.

He decided to go with the sneak-up-and-grab-the-stone plan.

Carefully, Danny approached Hel. There was a sphere of air around her where no ghosts flew – apparently they valued the personal space of their leader. At least, that's what Danny thought.

As soon as Danny came within two meters of Hel, a sudden strike of pain tore through his head. It only lasted for about a second, but it was enough for him to cry out in pain and close his eyes. When he looked up again, all the ghosts had stopped moving. Well, all the ghosts except for one.

Hel had moved, and she was staring right at him.

* * *

 _Sam's POV_

"Danny?! What happened?" shouted Sam into the communications array in the OP center. She'd heard Danny call out, and then his audio feed had cut out and been reduced to a mess of static. This couldn't be good.

"Why won't he answer?" asked Tucker, but Sam was pretty sure he knew just as well as her.

"Because he can't," said Jazz, confirming Sam's thoughts. "Something is blocking the signal, which means he's probably been found. There's not much we can about it do from here."

"Well, we can't just sit around here, can we?" said Sam, "Danny's out there all alone, and obviously his plan has failed. We need to help him, somehow!"

Jazz smiled.

"We will," she began and stood up. "Mom and Dad have been working on something, and I think we should be able to use it now"

The red-haired young woman crossed the room in quick steps, and stopped in front of what looked like a large green cupboard. Carefully, she opened it, and took out the three identical inventions that lay within it.

"They were originally made for Mom, Dad and me, but you two should be able to use them too," said Jazz and showed them to Sam and Tucker.

Sam's eyes widened as she realized what the invention was.

"But, why didn't we use these from the start?" asked Tucker.

"Danny would have wasted at least half an hour arguing with me if I told him about these. I always planned to bring them out, but not until after he'd gone," said Jazz, "Now, who's ready to go kick some ghost butt?"

* * *

 _ **A/N: Yes, I realize that I never said what the invention was. It's intentional.**_

 _ **Also, sorry if this is even worse than usual. I haven't written for like a week, so I might be a little bit out of practice.**_

Asgardian words:  
Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The ghostzone  
Asgard - The part of the ghostzone where the asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa  
Jotun - Ghost


	14. Chapter 14

_**A/N: Chapter 14! I liked writing this one, or at least a certain part of it. It's the italicized one. I really liked something I wrote for once, so yay! Hope you like it as much as I did! Enjoy!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 14**

 _Danny's POV_

"Hel! Uh, we can talk this through, right?" said Danny with a nervous laugh.

The mind-controlled goddess in question smiled – not a kind or welcoming smile, but a nasty and cruel one.

"Should we take him out?" asked one of the surrounding ghosts. At this point, it seemed like nearly half the ghost army had come to see what was going on. Of course, given the scale of this operation, Danny knew that was impossible, but that didn't really change anything. What mattered was, there were a lot of ghosts just hanging around doing nothing, ready to attack him at any moment.

"No, I can take care of this small fry. Get back to work," said 'Hel', after which she looked Danny straight in the eye. "I'm not Hel and you know it. I can see her entire mind and I know she told you about the mind stone."

Danny frowned. She, no _he_ – it was Loki, it had to be – knew.

"Right. Loki, is it?" he asked, anger clearly present in his voice, "Would you please stop controlling my friend?"

That wasn't going to work and he knew it, but hey, it was worth a shot.

"No," said Loki with a neutral face. "Why would I? It's thanks to her powers that I can control all of these ghosts. You think I would give that up?" he paused, "Besides, I'm her father. I have every right in the world to control her."

"Dude, that is so messed up," said Danny, "I guess I'll have to do this the hard way."

Danny fired a ghost ray at Loki, aiming for the mind stone. If he could break it somehow, maybe he could free Hel. He had to try.

Loki, however, deflected the ray with a single wave of his daughter's arm.

"Please. You'll have to try harder than that, child," said the god. He then proceeded to fire a similar ray – except instead of being the light green of Danny's powers, this one was blue.

The ray hit Danny straight in the chest, and with a cry of pain he fell to the ground. Before he could get up Loki had landed and jumped off his eight-legged horse. He was now standing over Danny, with his daughter's staff pointed straight at Danny's throat.

"Give up," said the god, "And I might let you live… In my prison, of course. I may even allow you to be with your family. However, make a single move to attack me and you're dead."

"No," said Danny, "No, I will not give up. Hel, if you're still in there and you can feel this, I'm really sorry."

He then proceeded to Wail.

Loki obviously hadn't been expecting this. With a surprised look in his borrowed eyes, he was thrown backwards, right into the wall off a building, screaming in pain. He then seemed to collapse, most likely knocked out.

Danny sighed in relief, before the exhaustion from the attack forced him to change back into human form.

That's when he realized there was still a ghost army up above, and apparently knocking Loki unconscious hadn't broken the mind control on them. Either that, or they all just hated Danny. Both scenarios were equally likely.

"Shit," he mumbled as he turned on the wrist rays he'd brought. Guess they did come in handy after all. Still, he could never fight off an entire army with just some wrist rays.

He could still try, though.

As he fought off the ghosts to his best ability, he made his way over to Hel's unconscious body. At least he hoped she was unconscious, and not worse. He didn't really know what happened when ghosts died, and he didn't really want to know either.

He eventually reached his destination, but the ghosts were getting closer and closer. He actually managed to knock some of them out, but they were just too many. If this continued, there was no way he would get out of this situation even partially alive.

His salvation came in the form of what appeared to be an ectoplasmic weapon fired straight into the cloud of ghosts. Surprised, Danny – and all the ghosts with him – turned his attention to the source of the ray.

There stood Jazz, Sam and Tucker, equipped with the most awesome looking suits he'd ever seen. White and green in design, they appeared to be based on some upgraded version of the Fenton Peeler, though slightly more slimmed, probably equipped with more weapons, and were those _jetpacks_ on the backs of them?

Either way, they were awesome.

"Guys! Over here!" yelled Danny, and caught the attention of his friends and sister.

"Danny!" shouted Jazz and the three ran over to him, still fighting off the ghost army.

"We were so worried about you, man," said Tucker, "Also, have you seen these suits? They're awesome!"

"Yeah, they are," said Danny tiredly, "Sorry I'm not helping out so much."

"You held out until we got here, that's what's important," said Sam, "Now shut up and let us kick some ghost butt."

Danny was about to laugh, when he was interrupted from behind.

"Actually, I think it will be your butts getting kicked," said Loki, who had now awoken. Everyone turned to face him, faces filled with fear. However, as Loki started to charge up a ghost ray, Danny did the only thing he could think of.

He jumped straight at him and grabbed the mind stone.

Loki's borrowed face filled with surprise, but it wasn't visible for long as a bright red light erupted from the mind stone. Everyone covered their eyes – including the ghost army, thankfully – and then Danny's world went black.

* * *

 _?'s POV_

" _Hey, what's that?"_

 _The voice came from a dark-haired girl. Her skin was pale and her eyes blue, and she wore a green and white apron dress. Around her neck hung a bronze necklace and a thick leather belt was wrapped around her waist._

 _All in all, she looked like a typical 14-year-old Viking girl._

 _She was on a walk in the forest with her father, a tall and kind-looking man. Like his daughter, he had dark hair, but his eyes were a warm brown – almost like the fur of a bear except shinier. He wore a green tunic – the same shade as his daughter's dress – and a pair of black pants. Around his middle hung a leather belt, matching his daughter's except his was tied together with an elaborately decorated bronze buckle._

 _The girl was pointing at what looked like a small star – except unlike normal stars which were yellow or white and hung in the sky, this one was green and hovered only about a meter off the ground._

" _I don't know, Hel. I think we should leave it alone though. It might be an evil spirit," said the man to his daughter. In response, the girl frowned and then tried her best to look like a kicked puppy._

" _But what if it's a nice spirit? It looks lonely!" said the girl._

" _There is no such thing as a nice spirit, and you know it," said her father, but she wouldn't listen. Instead, she turned and walked towards the star._

" _How would you know? You haven't met any spirits," said the girl. She was now stood right next to the star. Slowly, she raised her hand to touch the star. "Hello little spirit. Do you want to be my friend?"_

" _Wait!" shouted her father, but it was too late._

 _The moment the girl touched it, the star burst into life around her. Green energy surrounded her, was in her, was_ one _with her. And it hurt, oh gods did it hurt. She heard a scream, and was vaguely aware that it was her own. Eventually, the pain became too much, and she blacked out._

 _When she came to, her father was holding her, giving her whispered promises to never let go, to protect her, to care for her, forever._

 _And he did. For years after years, even when the other people found out. Even when they were outcasts, and when she was alone, she knew that he cared._

 _Until one day, hundreds of years later, when he came to her with a mind stone and broke her heart._

"Why, father? Why?"

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

Danny returned to consciousness, not even a moment seeming to have passed in the real world. He could hear the sound of something glass-like breaking and clattering to the ground. The red light faded, and he was faced with a girl he'd never seen before standing in front of him. She was a ghost, that much was clear, as she had light blue skin and green eyes. Her hair was white and she was wearing a bronze-colored dress, and around her neck hung a necklace of green pearls. She was barefoot and her hair was loose.

It was Hel, Danny realized, the way she'd looked back when she was still half alive. When she was a halfa. Like him. Because she had been.

Her appearance was only an illusion though, and it quickly faded – leaving behind the split form she had always taken before.

"Hel?" asked Danny, and the goddess looked him straight in the eyes.

"I am going to kick my father's ass for doing that," she said and looked up toward the sky, "Hey, _jotun_? Change of plans. Bring everyone back to their homes, help them repair stolen property, and then return to whatever corners of Jotunheim my dad found you in."

The ghosts complied, and in the background Sam, Jazz and Tucker cheered. Well, Jazz and Tucker cheered, and Sam looked mildly happy. They had just gained a very powerful ally.

* * *

 _ **A/N: There you go! Hope you liked that.**_

Asgardian words:  
Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The ghostzone  
Asgard - The part of the ghostzone where the asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa  
Jotun - Ghost  
Jotunheim - Alternate name for the ghostzone, used before the other asgardians found out about Hel's condition. When they found out, they banished her there and made her oversee it to make sure the ghosts didn't come after them. When this happened, they started referring to it as 'the realm Hel is in' or eventually 'Hel's home', which in old norse would be Helheim. Hel using 'Jotunheim' in this chapter, along with briefly showing her old self, reflects her starting to realize that the other asgardians - and later her father - were wrong when they bullied her and used her for their own gains. By calling the realm Jotunheim she recognizes that the realm wasn't created or built for her, and that it's not any more part of her personality than it is of any other ghost. By briefly shunning her split appearance, she is showing that she's accepted that she is fully dead, along with refusing to play the role of the monster that the other asgardians forced upon her. However, her split state is still her true ghost form, and she cannot maintain her full ghost form for very long. Yes, 90% of this explanation till be cut in the next chapter. Until then, enjoy the deep thoughts of a shitty author.


	15. Chapter 15

_**A/N: Hey guys! Sorry this chapter is so short. Also, sorry I missed a day. I've been having s bit of stuff happen in my life that frankly is none of your business, and it's been making finding time and inspiration to write quite difficult. On another note, I realize I forgot to add POV changes to the last few chapters, so I've gone back and added those now. Sorry for any confusion.**_

 _ **Either way, here's the new (slightly short - again, sorry!) chapter. Enjoy!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 15**

With a cry of rage, Loki's eyes snapped open.

"You foolish girl!" he roared, standing up from the throne he'd been sitting on, "I WILL MAKE YOU PAY!"

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

"So, what do we do now?" asked Danny. They'd just managed to avert the majority of the invasion, but he had a strong feeling this wasn't over yet.

"We take out my father. He's the cause of all this, and until he's caught nobody's safe," said Hel, confirming Danny's thoughts. " After that, we'll take him back to Asgard, and hopefully this time those idiots will build a prison that can hold him."

"Well, that sounds like a plan," said Danny, "Who's ready to go?"

"I'm in," said Tucker, and Jazz nodded. They both stepped forward to join Danny and Hel.

"I don't trust you, but you're the best shot we've got at this so I'm in as well," said Sam, who also – although somewhat reluctantly – stepped forward to join the group.

And so, the five took to the sky.

* * *

 _Sam's POV_

Flying was weird, Sam concluded. Sure, she'd flown before –when Danny had carried her – but flying like this, with these jetpack suits, was a whole other thing. She wasn't being carried – well, technically she was, but that's not the point. Instead, she was flying on her own. She had complete control of where she wanted to go, complete freedom. While her goth persona didn't allow her to show it, she was happy.

At the same time, she was afraid. The machine could stop working, she could misjudge a distance and crash into something, she could go too far and get lost. There were so many things that could go wrong. Even though she knew that realistically, there was no danger in the actual flying part of this mission – Danny would never let anything happen to her, she was sure of it – the fear was still present, alongside the joy.

The only way she could summarize it was, it felt weird.

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

"Hey Jazz, you okay?" asked Danny. The group were now flying through the ghostzone, led by Hel who was shoeing the way. A while back Danny had noticed Jazz looking a little out of it, and discretely – or at least he hoped so – went to join her in the back of the group.

It was a bit weird seeing her here. His sister had always supported him, but he'd never imagined her flying beside him like this. That was sort of his thing.

"Yeah, just a bit of a nervous flier," joked Jazz and gave a small nervous laugh. Danny smiled at her, and flew back to the front. Good to know he wasn't the only one who found this situation a bit weird.

He knew, of course, that his sister had lied. Spending that much time around her and her endless psychology ramblings had taught him more than she thought. He also knew that she didn't want to talk about whatever it was, and he respected that.

* * *

 _Hel's POV_

Tucker absolutely couldn't stop talking, and while she appeared annoyed outward, Hel loved it. He was the first person she'd talked to in a long time who'd wanted to know something about _her_. Sure, she'd met plenty of ghosts over the years who had loved to talk about themselves, or other ghosts – a few had even been interested in her family – but she had a hard time remembering any that had been genuinely interested in _her_.

So she answered all of his silly questions. Yes, she'd been a halfa like Danny when she was alive. Yes, she was a Viking. No, she wasn't actually a goddess – but she didn't mind the title at all.

After all, every trip could benefit from a bit of conversation.

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

Even though he was _literally_ flying into the lair of his enemy, Danny felt hopeful. All of this extra weirdness that had plagued his life for a long time was coming to an end. Sure, there would still be the regular ghosts, but there wouldn't be any acid-spitting mega-snakes or humongous ghost wolves. Okay, maybe a few big ghost wolves – they seemed to like him for some reason – but they would still just be the regular ghost wolves.

And it wasn't just his life getting better either. He was once again saving the world, once again making people happy. He was doing his job. What's more, he wasn't alone this time. His friends, his sister, a _freaking goddess_ – though he overheard her telling Tucker that was just a fancy title. All of them were by his side now.

So when he landed in Loki's lair, friends and family by his side, he didn't feel a bit afraid.

* * *

 _ **A/N: There you go! See you again... uh... soon. Hopefully tomorrow but I can't promise anything. Again, I'm really sorry.**_

Asgardian words:  
Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The ghostzone  
Asgard - The part of the ghostzone where the asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa  
Jotun - Ghost  
Jotunheim - Alternate name for the ghostzone.


	16. Chapter 16

_**A/N: Once again, sorry for the wait! We're getting quite close to the finish line now - or at least that's what I think. Enjoy!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 16**

Loki was _furious_. That sad excuse of a daughter had not only betrayed him and broken free of his control, she had dared to lead her little friends to his lair. Still, it didn't matter. She might have been strong enough to break his control, but her brothers weren't. With them at his side, there was no way she could defeat him. Then, when he had defeated her, he would threaten her friends and thus force her to work for him.

He _was_ going to take control of Midgard, and nothing could stop him. Nothing, and no one.

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

"Alright, he should be around here somewhere," said Hel as they landed. The lair they were in – presumably Loki's? – took the form of a dark landscape. Dark blue grass covered the ground, and in front of them was a huge hill, with a small entrance leading to a cave of some sort. The air was unusually cold, even for the ghostzone.

Danny immediately recognized it. Here, up on that hill, was where his dream had been set. Hel's dream setting had been her father's lair? He'd have to ask her about that later. There were more important matters right now.

"Well, I can't see him out here, so he has to be in the cave," said Sam, and Hel nodded.

"Probably, yes," said the not-goddess.

"Then what are we waiting for?" said Danny, "Let's go!"

* * *

The cave entrance led to a large underground room. Aside from the lamps on Sam, Jazz and Tucker's suits and the faint glow of the ghosts in the room, there were no obvious light sources. However, the room was still somehow entirely illuminated. The walls, floor and roof were filled with glimmering crystals, and Danny could sense a large amount of energy coming from them.

"Wow…" whispered Jazz to his left, and Danny couldn't help but agree. The room was, simply put, stunning.

"The crystals lining the walls of this cavern, while not able to glow on their own, are very good at reflecting and intensifying light from other sources – so good that even the glow of a single ghost is enough to see where you're going in here. They also have powerful ghostly abilities, with each gem doing something different from the others," said Hel, "Loki probably found the mind stone here. Too bad it broke; it will take me a while to find a new one."

"What do you mean, 'find a new one'?" asked Danny. Wasn't this Loki's lair? I mean, sure, the guy was her father, and she'd probably been living here a while, but surely she wasn't planning on staying in the home of the father who had betrayed her?

Hel turned to look at Danny, with a surprised look in her eyes.

"This is my lair, Danny. This is also my gem collection. Why wouldn't I want one of the rarest gems in the ghost zone?" she asked.

Oh. That explained it.

The look on Danny's face obviously revealed his thoughts – or maybe Hel had done that mind reading thing she'd done in his dream – because Hel just started laughing at him, while all the others looked at the two ghosts in confusion.

* * *

"So, what do we do now?" asked Tucker, "I mean, Loki's not exactly here, is he?"

Hel nodded.

"It is true that my father is not within this cavern, but I doubt he is far away," she said and lifted her hand, summoning the staff she had used in the battle with Jormungandr. After raising it high, she slammed it into the floor, causing a hatch to appear in the side of the room.

"Where does that lead?" asked Danny.

"I'm glad you asked," said Hel, "The tunnel leads to the maze of lost souls, a huge labyrinth filled with many rooms. It holds many places where my father can hide, so I would suggest we split up. You guys can decide the groups though, I don't really care."

"I'll go with Danny!" said Sam, "And you're coming with us too, Hel. I still don't trust you, and I'm definitely not letting you out of my sight."

Hel sighed, but nodded.

"Okay. Me, Sam and Danny will be group one, Jazz and Tucker will be group two," said Hel. She then went over to a wall and plucked two of the gems out of it. "These gems are linked. Squeeze one and the other will light up and guide you to its counterpart. If either group finds Loki, or really needs help, use these."

While speaking, Hel demonstrated the power of the gems by squeezing one of them. The other lit up, hovered in the air, and started to fly toward the other. When the gems met, the light died down. After the demonstration was done, she threw one of the gems toward Jazz, who just barely managed to catch it.

"Well then," said Sam, "Into the labyrinth we go!"

* * *

 _Tucker's POV_

Damn, this was one scary maze. In the beginning, the twisting and turning corridors had been lit up by the leftover light from the main chamber. However, now not only had every light source had left the cavern, he and Jazz had also probably walked too far away for it to help. The faint glow from the lights on their suits didn't do much to help either, leaving them to stumble in the dark. They had long since removed the gloves of their suits, so that they could feel their way forward by putting their hands on the walls. Thankfully, the humans-go-through-stuff rule that applied to most of the ghostzone didn't apply here.

He kinda wished Danny or Hel had come with them – surely ghosts could make lights out of ectoplasm? – but it was too late to change that now.

"Hey, Tucker?", came Jazz's voice from in front of him, "I think I've found something."

"Oh yeah?" answered Tucker curiously, "What is it?"

"I don't know," said Jazz, "It seems like some kind of door. It's to our left, on the wall."

Tucker moved forward and, of course, bumped into Jazz.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" yelled the young woman, "Oh, wait. Dark underground ghost maze. Never mind."

As Tucker ran his hands over the wall, he found that the stone that built up the cave and its walls was abruptly cut off by a smoother surface – painted wood, maybe? After looking around for a few seconds, he found an even smoother outcropping.

"I think I've found a doorknob or something," he said, "Should I try to open it?"

"Go ahead," said Jazz, now to his right, "It's not like we've got anything better to do."

Tucker turned the knob and pushed the door open. He immediately had to cover his eyes as whatever was inside that room was very bright compared to his earlier surroundings.

When his eyes adjusted, he was greeted with a medium-sized room with a tall roof. Bookshelves lined the walls and a dark blue carpet with green patterns embroidered into it covered the floor. A ladder was balanced against one of the bookshelves and in the middle of the room stood a relatively large table surrounded with chairs. From the roof hung an ancient-looking candelabra, lit by actual candles – weird considering how everything in the room was covered with a thick layer of dust. Nobody had been in this room for quite a while, yet the candles were still burning tall. _Ghosts are weird, man_ , thought Tucker, and decided to end that train of thought before he scared himself.

"It's a library," breathed Jazz as she and Tucker stepped into the room, "Isn't it beautiful?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," said Tucker, "But I don't see any Loki, so I think we should keep moving."

Of course, the door behind them chose that moment to slam shut.

* * *

 _ **A/N: There you go! Hope you liked it, and I'll see you soon!**_

Asgardian words:  
Midgard - The human world  
Helheim - The ghostzone  
Asgard - The part of the ghostzone where the asgardians live  
Halfling - Halfa  
Jotun - Ghost  
Jotunheim - Alternate name for the ghostzone.


	17. Chapter 17

_**A/N: Hey guys! So sorry for the long wait! I was hoping to finish this story before school started, but unfortunately it's drawn on for way too long and with school taking up all my time it's been really hard to find opportunities to write. It's unfortunately not finished yet, and it will probably be quite a while before the next chapter, but, well, at least you got something! Enjoy!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 17**

 _Sam's POV_

Not long after they left the cavern, the twisting tunnels of the maze turned dark around Sam, Danny and Hel. Fortunately, Hel – and, after some coaching from said goddess, Danny – managed to create a few small glowing balls of ectoplasmic energy. While Danny's lights merely hovered around him and followed him around, Hel's lights danced through the air. What a show off.

"I wonder how the others are dealing with the lack of light," said Hel after a while, "Maybe one of us should have gone with them. While you didn't know how to create these until I thought you, at least you glow."

"Nah, they'll be fine," said Danny, "I'm sure they can take care of themselves."

* * *

 _Jazz's POV_

Of course, lack of light wasn't really the other group's problem anymore.

What was a problem, however, was the fact that they were locked in a small library in a maze probably controlled by Loki. Not good.

As soon as Jazz heard the slam, she turned around to face the now locked door. In the corner of her eye, she could see Tucker doing the same.

"Well, that's gonna be a problem," said Tucker, "What do we do now?"

At the very moment when he ended that sentence, a loud growl came from behind the two.

Once again Jazz spun around, this time to be faced with none other than Fenrir, giant monster dog of the underworld. Apparently, the bookshelves in the room acted as hidden doors, because one of them was wide open in the back of the room.

The monstrous wolf growled again and barked at the two humans, covering them in a wave of his drool.

"Ew!" yelled Tucker in disgust.

"Not the time, Tucker," said Jazz, "Focus!"

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

After a while, Danny stumbled upon something in the maze.

It was an average-sized blue-painted wooden door with a golden knob. On the middle of the door was a strange symbol which looked kind of like a large glowing eye.

"Guys, there's a door here!" he shouted to Sam and Hel, who were lingering a bit behind him. The two girls quickly caught up.

"Should we check what's in there?" asked Sam.

"Yes," said Hel and nodded, "This is what I was looking for. On the other side of this door lies what I like to call the control center of this maze. It's like a supernatural surveillance system. We should be able to find Loki with it."

Hel opened the door, and blue light poured out from the room inside. Once his eyes adjusted, Danny could see that the room was absolutely filled with what looked like computer screens, casting an eerie blue light across the room. Most of the screens depicted various parts of the maze – there was even one showing what was currently happening in this room – but there were plenty of other kinds of information on the screens as well. In the middle of the back wall sat the largest screen, on which what appeared to be a map of the maze could be seen. Apparently, the walls of this maze were literally twisting and turning, as every so often the map refreshed itself with a new layout.

The group entered the room, and Hel immediately marched forward to the big screen.

"Show all life signs," she commanded, and three bright yellow dots lit up on the otherwise blue map. One of the dots appeared to be in the same room as them, while the other two were in a room quite a bit south – that is, downward on the map, Danny had no clue how directions actually worked in the ghost zone – of them. After a while, another yellow spot appeared, but this one was far from as bright as the others and appeared to flicker. This last dot was also in the same room as the group.

"I'm guessing those two are me and Danny?" Sam asked and pointed to the two dots that were in the same room as them.

"That is correct," said Hel with a smile, "And the other two are Jazz and Tucker. Good to know they haven't lost each other"

"But this just shows living people," said Danny, "How is this going to help us find Loki?"

"It's not. This here is just to confirm that the system's working properly," answered Hel. Then, she once again turned to the screen. "Show all ecto-signatures. Identify recognized signatures."

Immediately, the dot representing Danny flared up. However, now, instead of being yellow it constantly flickered between yellow and blue, only to stabilize as a bright green color.

"Huh. Never seen it do that before," mused Hel.

Seconds later, four more dots flickered to life – these ones blue. There was one in the same room as them – Hel – as well as three more spread out in different rooms. After a few moments, the color of the dots shifted. Hel's dot turned to a lighter shade of blue, another of the dots which was located near the top right corner of the maps turned a dark green, a third dot turned red, and the fourth turned orange.

This was when they noticed the location of said fourth dot – it was in the same room as Jazz and Tucker.

"Guys, look! One of them is with Jazz and Tucker!" said Danny in alarm.

"That's Fenrir!" added Hel in an equally alarmed and somewhat more serious tone, "He must have ambushed them. System, show me door status of room 045!"

A bright red rectangle appeared around the entrance to said room.

"What does that mean?" asked Sam.

"They're locked in," answered Hel, "I'll see if I can do anything about it. System, bring up surveillance of room 045 on screen two."

* * *

 _Jazz's POV_

Jazz quickly leapt out of the way as Fenrir once again lunged at her. She turned to face the wolf, while also looking out to make sure Tucker was okay. Seeing the boy hovering in the opposite corner of the room, the young woman switched her attention to the creature in front of her. She had to figure out how to beat it.

Even though conventional attacks didn't work – she'd tried blasting him with everything she had, and the wolf had simply shrugged it off – there had to be a way to take this thing out. At one point Tucker had mentioned a rope around its neck that Danny had used when he faced the wolf, but it was mysteriously absent.

She could beat him. She just had to figure out how.

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

"We have to help them!" said Danny and went for the door, only to find Hel standing in front of him.

"No, Danny," said Hel, "You stay here. Same goes for you, Sam. There's nothing you can do."

"But we can't just leave them!" said Sam.

"We won't. I will go," said Hel, "With my staff I can quickly and easily neutralize Fenrir without hurting him. There is no need for you to come – in fact it's better if you stay here and monitor the situation."

"But we want to-" began Danny.

"No," said Hel bluntly and stepped out of the door, which promptly slammed shut. Danny ran to open it, but it wouldn't budge.

* * *

 _Jazz's POV_

"Tucker!" yelled Jazz as Fenrir once again jumped at her younger companion. This time, the boy was just a bit too slow and the humongous wolf managed to land on him, pinning him to the ground.

This was it, Jazz thought, it was over. She'd failed. She hadn't been able to figure anything out, she hadn't been able to defeat Fenrir, she hadn't been able to help anyone. She could only look on in shock as Tucker futilely tried to blast the wolf and escape from it. There was nothing she could do…

"Jazz!"

Jazz looked up. That was Hel's voice! But where was it coming from?

"Jazz, listen. I'm using my powers to hack into your suit so I can talk to you. I can see everything that's happening, and I'm on my way. You just have to survive a little bit longer, and then I can get you out of there. Don't give up now!"

Jazz nodded.

"Alright," said the teen and turned to look at Fenrir. "Hey ugly!" she yelled and jumped at it. The wolf looked up, but Jazz used the suit's powers to fly around the wolf and land on its back. Gripping the neck of the ghostly hound as hard as she could, she used the thrusters in her boots to pull it backward and try to get the wolf back from Tucker. And it worked.

As soon as Jazz started pulling, the wolf stopped fighting. It still wouldn't let go of Tucker, but it wasn't hurting him. Jazz noticed, and kept pulling. To her surprise, the wolf started losing its strength, and eventually let go of her friend. It also became lighter, allowing Jazz to lift the wolf away from Tucker. She then not-so-carefully dropped it on the floor, where the wolf stayed completely still, as if asleep.

Seconds later, Hel burst through the door.

"Rescue is here!" she shouted at full volume, only for Jazz and Tucker to look at her in surprise.

"Thanks," said Jazz, "But I think we're fine."

* * *

 _ **A/N: There you go! Hope you liked it.**_

 _ **Oh, and, I'm not going to be copying the word list for every chapter anymore. I figure you can just go back and check the earlier chapters if you need some info, and it saves me a lot of time.**_


	18. Chapter 18

_**A/N: Hey guys! Bet you thought I'd given up on this thing!**_

 _ **Well, actually, I had. Then I got really bored one evening and needed something to do. I could, of course, have done some of the seemingly infinite amount of homework that I have, but I decided against it. I'm probably going to regret this.**_

 _ **Anyway, here you go! Enjoy!**_

* * *

 _Hel's POV_

Hel had to admit, she was a bit impressed by what Jazz had managed. Even she didn't know that Fenrir would react like that to anything other than Gleipnir, and Jazz had somehow managed to figure it out all on her own. Or maybe she'd just panicked and done the first random thing she could think of. Either way, it was rather impressive.

"Oh, Fenrir…" she mumbled as she floated down to inspect her brother. He seemed to be alright, merely sleeping. Hel stood up and tapped the wolf's head with her staff, causing him to disappear in a flash of blue light. She wasn't sure just how much control her father had over him, and she didn't want to risk anything. She could release him later. The goddess then turned to Jazz and Tucker.

"Well then," she said, "Let's go. We've got no time to lose."

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

It had been at least twenty minutes since Hel left when Danny heard his FentonPhones, which had stopped working when they entered the lair, switch on. From the way Sam straightened up beside him, the same thing had happened to her suit's comm systems.

"Hey, guys? I kind of need your help," said Hel's voice through the tiny speakers. Danny briefly wondered how she could talk to them since she didn't have a comm unit of her own, but quickly dismissed the thought.

"What do you need?" asked Danny, with slight irritation present in his voice. After all, locking your friends up and running off wasn't exactly the friendliest behaviour possible. Still, it could have been worse.

"You know that map I showed you earlier? I need you to use it to guide me back to the room you're in," answered Hel.

"I'm on it," said Sam. She walked up to the map and gave it a good look. "Alright, you need to go out into the corridor, turn left, and then walk forward for as far as you can. Then turn right, and then turn left at the second side branch…"

* * *

"So, what do we do now?" asked Danny.

"We go after my father," answered Hel, who had just returned with Jazz and Tucker. "Thanks to the map, we know where he is. However, at least one of us needs to stay here and guide us in case the maze changes too much."

"I can do that," said Jazz, "I've fought enough for today. I'm happy to stay here and back you guys up from the sidelines."

"Well then, that's settled," said Sam. "But, even if we find Loki, what are we going to do when we get there?"

"We fight," said Hel, "And hopefully, we win. After that, I'm not sure either. If we defeat him, though, I should be able to lock him in my staff which will at least buy us enough time to think of something else."

"Sounds like as good a plan as we're gonna get," said Tucker, "Now let's go!"

* * *

 _Sam's POV_

As the group rushed through the tunnels, guided by Jazz's voice in their comm systems, Sam started to think. Specifically, she started to think about Hel.

Ever since their first meeting, Sam had distrusted her. First because she seemed shallow, and then later because she was very much not - or rather, because of who she had turned out to be. The whole locking-her-up-in-a-room act certainly hadn't made anything better.

But as she thought more and more about the mysterious girl, she realized that maybe she wasn't as bad as she seemed. If what she had said was true, she was the spirit of someone who'd died, not just become a halfa like Danny but _died_ when she was only fourteen. She'd been _killed_ all because she was a little different. A bit creepier, a bit closer to the realm of the dead.

A bit like her.

 _No_ , thought Sam, _I am NOT relating to her. She is nothing like me. She is nothing like Danny either. And I definitely don't trust or like her at all. The only reason I'm following her is that Danny and Tucker want me to trust her._

Deep down, though, Sam knew she was lying to herself.

* * *

 _Hel's POV_

 _This is it_ , Hel thought as she stepped up to the huge door. _The final fight._

The chamber beyond the door was one of her favourites; it's where she kept her crystal mirrors. And they were going to fight in there. Not ideal, but if it meant keeping the human world safe, it was a small sacrifice.

"You're one hundred percent sure it's this room?" asked Hel and stared at the handle.

"Yeah," came Jazz's voice from out of thin air. Hel had long since linked up her mind to the communication system her human friends used, so she could be part of the conversation. "He's definitely in there."

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" asked Sam, "Let's get this over with!"

Hel reached out to open the door, but hesitated. She turned around, looking at the faces of her newfound friends. The flickering green light of the ectoplasmic energy surrounding them would have made them look a bit scary to most people, but Hel was used to it. Reassured by the determination shining in their faces, she gave a quick smile before turning around and pushing the door open.

* * *

 _Tucker's POV_

At first, the room the group entered appeared to be absolutely huge - larger than even the entrance hall with the gems. However, Tucker soon realized this was an illusion, caused by the walls being absolutely covered in mirrors. It wasn't just the walls either, large parts of the room were filled with mirror after mirror, each one slightly different.

The room was still fairly big, though. And Loki was nowhere to be found.

"I don't get it," said Tucker, "Where is he?"

"He must be hiding," answered Hel.

"How can he be hiding in a room full of mirrors?" asked Sam.

"I don't know," said an unknown voice from behind the group, "Maybe by being _invisible_?"

At once, everyone in the group spun around.

"Guys? What's ha-" began Jazz's voice in their ears, but her voice was soon cut out and replaced with static. That was the least of their worries, though.

In front of the group stood a tall man, wearing a dark green cloak with golden embroidery. The hood was up, but it didn't take the man long to reach up and pull it away, revealing a sheet-white and angled face surrounded by pitch black hair. His eyes, sunken heavily into his skull, glowed a bright green.

"Father," snapped Hel and glared at the man, who had to be Loki.

"I see you've returned home, my child. Once again you've disobeyed me. Will you never learn?" said Loki.

"Dude, that's messed up," said Danny, "You have no right to talk to her like that."

Loki narrowed his eyes.

"It appears that what you want is a fight. Very well, if that's what it takes to get rid of you, then fight you I will."

* * *

 _Danny's POV_

In the beginning of the fight, Danny was sure he would win. They were four against one, and surely they couldn't lose, right?

Then, Loki had brought out the mega ghost rays that his soldiers had used before.

Danny was once again hit straight in the leg. Wincing, he fell to the ground. He tried to keep fighting, but the pain was even worse this time. He remembered that Jazz had said something about an anti-ghost bullet - _an actual bullet he had been shot with an actual bullet_ \- and switched back to his human form.

The pain lessened significantly, but he also had next to no way of fighting. All he had was those wrist rays from before, and they didn't seem to do much at all.

And as if it wasn't bad enough already, Hel suddenly dropped out of the sky next to him.

Unlike him, Hel was a full ghost and wasn't able to escape the pain from the bullet. It also seemed to be significantly worse for her, if the thrashing was anything to go by. He wished he could help her, but he was too far away, and even if he was closer there was nothing he would be able to do.

"Give up yet?" asked Loki, and both Danny and Hel glared at him hatefully.

"Never!" roared Sam. Being human, she and Tucker were largely unaffected by the rays, and they were still fighting - or, to be more accurate, defending. There was little they could do to attack.

 _It's over_ , thought Danny, _we've lost_.

That's when Thor burst through the ceiling.

* * *

 _Hel's POV_

Hel didn't remember much of the fight after she'd been shot. All she could focus on was the pain in her arm and the fear, the constant mantra of _notagainNOTAGAIN_ _ **NOTAGAIN**_ repeating endlessly in her mind. Because of course she recognized the pain.

It was the same pain as all those years ago, with the potion made from two flowers designed to kill both human and _jotun_ , the agonizing torture that had marked the end of her life. She thought she would never have to face it again. And yet, here it was, concentrated in a bullet and yet somehow even _worse_ than the last time, and she didn't know why.

And then it just stopped.

Slowly, she blinked her eyes open. Above her stood none other than Odin Allfather, king of the Asgardians. Also known as the man who was probably going to imprison her forever.

She tried to beg him for mercy, to apologize, but her throat hurt too much to speak and she realized she must have been screaming. Instead, she looked into his one eye and saw her own reflection, fear written all over her face.

"Do not be afraid," said Odin. "I am not going to hurt you."

Confused, Hel wrinkled her eyebrows. The man- no, god standing above her merely smiled.

"You should rest, Hel. We have much to discuss, but you need to regain your strength first."

"My… Friends…" whispered Hel, only to start coughing from the effort of speaking.

"They're alright," stated Odin calmly, "Now go to sleep."

 _That sounds like a good idea_ , thought Hel, and quickly drifted off into darkness.

* * *

When Hel woke up, she knew she wasn't alone.

As she carefully opened her eyes, the faces of her friends slowly came into view.

"Hey, I think she's waking up," said Danny, and both Sam and Tucker turned to look at her.

"You really scared us there," said Sam, "Do you need anything?"

Hel shook her head.

"No, I'm fine. What happened?" she asked.

"Dude, it was awesome," said Tucker, "So, after you got hit, Thor showed up, except he had a whole bunch of other guys with him as well. Apparently they'd tracked the bronze amulets he gave us or something. And then they all beat up Loki and stuff, and they captured him, and they were about to go for you as well but Sam gave this awesome speech and made them realize that you're not a bad guy. And then this really big guy showed up, I think he was their king or something, and he, like, healed you and Danny or something, and then he took us here and gave us loads of food and stuff."

Hel zoned out about halfway through Tucker's speech, but she did notice one important detail.

"Sam, you… You spoke up for me?" she asked hesitantly, "I thought you… I thought you hated me."

Sam looked away, and refused to make eye contact.

"I- I did. At first. Not anymore. You're… You're cool, I guess." said the goth, and Hel smiled.

* * *

Only minutes after Hel had woken up, Odin entered the room. Hel quickly stood up from where she was sat on the bed, and turned to face him.

"So, I'm not sure how much of it was a dream, but I think you wanted to talk to me about something, right?" asked Hel.

"You are correct," said Odin, "You see, I owe you both an apology and a thank you. For way too long have the people of Asgard mistreated you, and yet you helped us defeat your own father. You have done a great service to Asgard, and you shall know that you will always be welcome here. However, I doubt you want to stay here."

Hel merely nodded.

"That is why I have a second gift for you," said Odin and reached into his pocket. From it he brought out a brilliant purple gem, practically crackling with power. "This is a life gem. It can be used once, and only once, to restore the life of one whose life was claimed too early. You may use it as you wish."

Odin dropped the gem in Hel's hands, and left the room without another word, leaving both Hel and the three humans in the room stunned in shock.

* * *

Soon after Odin's visit, a group of soldiers came to escort Danny, Sam, Tucker and Jazz (who was also in Asgard, but had gone for a walk when Hel woke up) back to their world. Hel gladly tagged along, as she was far from done talking to her new friends.

They ended up in Danny's house, and were surprised to find that pretty much everything had been restored. In fact, when they went upstairs they even found Danny's parents asleep in their beds. Everything was back to normal.

* * *

"So, what are you going to do with that life gem?" asked Danny. He and Hel were sitting in the Fenton family living room, discussing the events of the last few weeks.

"I don't know," said Hel, "I was thinking of giving it to you. Then… then you could be normal again."

"Dude, no way. This whole ghost thing might have been weird at first, but I like my life the way it is. You should use it to make yourself happy, not me," said Danny.

Hel took out the life gem, and looked at it.

"Then… I think I know what I'd like to do," she said and looked up at Danny, "Hey, would you mind if I stayed here? With you guys?"

* * *

And so it was, that Hel - now known as Helena Fenton - came to be a part of the Fenton household. All it took was a few forged papers and a slight memory wipe courtesy of the latest Fenton family invention, and Helena was now officially adopted by the Fentons.

Using the life stone had some interesting consequences for Helena. While they'd all thought it would turn her human, she actually only reverted to being a halfa again, like she'd been before she died. So, while she lost her control core - which was what made her special - she was still fully capable of helping her friend- no, _brother_ , fight the various ghosts that popped up around town.

A few months into Helena's new life, her other brothers showed up in the basement. Fenrir, Jormungandr and Sleipnir were, after all, not truly evil - like Hel, they had been tricked by their father. And while the Fentons never really saw them as family, they were always welcome in the house as friends.

In the end, Hel never got the family she wished for, with her father and her brothers living happily together, Helena got a family with kind parents and equally kind siblings. And when she more than a hundred years later returned to the afterlife, she did not walk alone on the road back to Asgard, to Valhalla.

For when she returned to the halls of her ancestors, she was no longer the only spirit with a face split in two.

* * *

 _ **A/N: Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd it's done. It's over. Hooray?**_

 _ **So, I was going to end it when everything was happy, but then I had to go and add those last few sentences to make it bittersweet because I am a terrible person.**_

 _ **From now on, I am only ever writing one-shots.**_


End file.
